Shadow's Life
by Pyro Hedgehog
Summary: Shadow survives the fall from ARK, but only to find out that everyone and everything he knew has changed, for better and worse. When allies betray allies, and enemies, both new and old arrive, he may just wish he'd died.
1. Return of Shadow

Shadow groaned as he woke up

Shadow's Life

Chapter 1

Return of Shadow

Shadow groaned as he woke up. A bright light shone in through a draped window near the couch, illuminating the calming pink walls, his sleek dark fur. Shadow sat up, and as the springs in the couch groaning under his shifted weight underneath him, thoughts of past events pouring into his mind. Had an entire year really passed since he nearly died when he fell from Space Colony ARK? A deep breathing from the right snapped Shadow from his thoughts. As he looked over, he saw Amy, sleeping in her bed on the other side of the room, shadows from the trees outside dancing over her gracefully. Shadow couldn't help but feel a twinge of thanks for her.

Ever since Amy found him on the fateful day, gravely injured in her backyard, she let him stay in her apartment.

_Flashback..._

_Shadow felt the air around him tighten, and he immediately knew he was about to impact the Earth. He slammed into the ground with a jolting crash, the soil forming a crater to cushion his blow. As the darkness crept into his vision, he saw Amy look out her window in her nightgown, clearly fatigued. She looked around the yard for the cause of the sound. Her weary jade eyes finally swept over him, and her eyes widened in shock. Amy took a minute to examine what it was she was staring at, and just who exactly was lying, wounded, in the crater that had just appeared outside the apartment building, destroying the little grass they had there._

_ She yelled, "Shadow!" just before the familiar feeling of darkness overtook him._

After that, Shadow was allowed to stay in Amy's apartment, seeing as he didn't have a place of his own. In return, he ran errands for her, occasionally cooked (which was a brand-new experience), as well as cleaned the house. Fittingly, though, every time he left to run an errand, he never ran into even one of the friends he'd fought alongside with on the ARK. Wait, friends? More like...temporary allies, to him. Still, he'd never seen them, not once, which, given how often he'd gone out, very peculiar. Still lost in his thoughts, Shadow then jumped off the couch, ignoring the protests of the springs, and walked out of the apartment. As he stepped out into the street, Shadow felt a small breeze waft over him, tickling his fur. After pausing to enjoy the moment, Shadow decided to run around Station Square to see if he met anybody he knew. Shadow took off in a sonic boom, and headed for the center of town. He enjoyed the push of the wind on his face, feeling as though it blew away any care he had in the world.

After a few minutes of a relaxing run, he approached the mall, where he'd done most of his shopping for Amy. As he slowed to a stop, he noticed a red echidna standing near the entrance of a sporting goods store. As it was, it was Knuckles, who was too engrossed in his search for heavy weights to notice. After putting down a decently heavy weight, Knuckles turned and saw Shadow.

"Hey, Shadow!" Knuckles blurted out before he realized just what had happened. Shadow reappeared a few feet in front of Knuckles, sparks rising from the ground. Shadow merely grunted and crossed his arms, but Knuckles took that as a 'hi'. The gravity of the situation fell on Knuckles like a bomb, and his purple eyes showed a sense of disbelief.

"Hey, wait a minute, I thought you died!" exclaimed Knuckles. Shadow rolled his eyes, slightly annoyed. Knuckles was being as blunt as ever.

"The Ultimate Life Form can never die, echidna." said Shadow, as though explaining the obvious. Shadow let his eyes fall upon Knuckles', and Knuckles glared.

"I have a name, you know!" Knuckles exclaimed angrily. Shadow remained silent, fully aware of where this would take him.

"You disappear for a year, and this is how you greet us?!" Knuckles said, eyes fixated, fists clenched.

"Just wanted to make sure you had the right idea about me." Shadow quipped.

In the shadow of the mall, a figure had been leaning against the wall casually, but now showed interest. Neither of the boys noticed the figure, as they were too busy exchanging remarks. The figure immediately started running towards them, ready to move.

"You've kept me waiting this long...you'll gonna pay!" the figure muttered, leaping into the air above them.


	2. Knuckles and Rouge

Shadow's Life

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, Sega has the lucky privilege.

Shadow saw the figure run towards Knuckles, as he lazily turned around.

"Knuckles, look out! It's-" Shadow said as the figure was feet away from Knuckles. He was cut off when the figure's arms threw themselves out into a grappling position when they slid over Knuckles' shoulders and wrapped around his neck, pulling him into a tight embrace. Shadow just looked away, not wanting to even look at the lovebirds, feeling as though the expressions of love was not his to be seen...as if he even cared to see them. Knuckles blushed, making his red fur redder, shock illuminating his eyes. It was Rouge the Bat, and in her hands was the sparkling silver Chaos Emerald. It gleamed radiantly, and sparkled as the sunlight bounced off of its smooth surface.

"Oh Knuckles, look what I found!" Knuckles, who was confused by Rouge's sudden appearance, looked down at her hand.

"The silver Chaos Emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed, surprised. He then saw a gun in her pocket, and decided not to ask. Rouge started talking about future dates and such, so Shadow took this as a cue to leave.

"When our paths cross again, Knuckles!" said Shadow as he turned around.

"Agreed," said Knuckles, as he turned back to Rouge. Immediately, Shadow raised his right hand, and waved, and then he ran off. With a bang only Shadow was capable of, Shadow took off, the familiar feeling of wind on his face, watering his eyes. Shadow then approached Amy's apartment building. He climbed the stairs, all the way to the tenth floor, and opened the door. He never knew why Amy wanted an apartment on the tenth floor of a building, but Shadow didn't complain, it gave him a better view of the clear moon at night. Amy was talking on the phone, and was talking about dresses, with an excited look on her face.

'_I don't think I'll ever understand any girl...besides Maria..._' Shadow thought to himself, rolling his eyes. He walked over to where Amy was, and waved to her. Amy suddenly put her hand to the phone's speaker, and seemed to lose it: her demeanor was similar to that of a person who had just won the lottery, jumping up and down, the phone in her hand. Her smile was never larger.

"Shadow! We're going to the pool, and we're going to meet Cream, and her boyfriend Tails there!" Amy screeched excitedly. Shadow paused for a moment, and a feeling of slight disgust rolled over him. Tails was only twelve, and Cream was ten, yet they were already dating? Amy may have found that cute, but he, Shadow, found it disturbing.

"OK, I guess we could go, I haven't seen Tails in a while..." murmured Shadow. The last time he saw Tails was when they were heading to ARK's Central Core programming computer that was built like the shrine for the Master Emerald around a year ago. Amy pranced out of the room gracefully while Shadow began the long walk to the pool, after grabbing a black towel with red stripes on the way. Little did he know that there would be more then just simple relaxation going on...


	3. Gathering of Heroes

Chapter 3

Sorry, I forgot about this. ShadTikal4ever does not own Sega, or any of the Sonic characters.

Shadow was walking to the pool when Amy ran up beside him. As she stopped right next to him, his red and black swim trunks shifted in the wind. She was wearing a long dress. Shadow gave it a glance, as it's bright pink couldn't be missed, but Amy saw it as a glance of confusion.

"This is only so I don't get sun burnt when I sit down on a chair." Amy said. Shadow crossed his arms, which showed he understood. After a few minutes, Shadow got a little impatient.

'Just where is this pool? Sure is far away from our apartment...did I just say ours? It's Amy's...' Shadow thought to himself. As if to answer his thoughts, the pool appeared to their right. Kids were splashing happily inside it, while adults were lying down, get a tan. As Amy hurried to get a good spot, Shadow took a breath and dove into the water. He opened his eyes, and closed them again. He swam up, breaking the surface. He took a deep breath. His eyes felt like they caught fire. And to make matters worse, just as he cleaned out his eyes, he was hit by someone, and got knocked underwater again. As he surfaced, his eyes and throat stung.

"Shadow! Glad you're here! Erm, sorry about that..." said a voice next to him. He reached out and closed his hands around the neck of Miles 'Tails' Prower. Shadow held his grip for a few seconds, but realized who he was attacking and instantly released his grip.

"Tails, watch where you're going." said Shadow in a raspy voice. The chlorine in the water affected his voice, hurting his throat when he talked. He put a hand to his throat, while his other hand rubbed his eyes. He noted to himself that Tails was probably thinking about Cream, and all anger subsided.

"Sorry Shadow...anyway, I'm gonna go ask out Cream soon." said Tails excitedly.

"Whatever, just don't mess things up." said Shadow, but with a slightly calmer demeanor. Tails smiled back.

"You too, Shadow!" said Tails, laughing. Shadow's smile immediately subsided.

"Tails, what are you talking about?" Shadow said seriously.

"You mean you haven't heard? Almost everyone we know heard about it. Amy's been talking to Cream and Rouge about asking you out. Cream was nice enough to tell me." Tails said, laughing. Shadow gave Tails a puzzled look, making Tails laugh all the harder.

"Sonic...what happened to him?" Shadow asked. Tails immediately shut up. After a few awkward moments, Tails answered, avoiding Shadow's eyes.

"You see, Shadow...after your fall, Sonic changed. He seemed to doubt himself, to hate himself for letting you fall...for letting you die. He started replaying those events in his mind, only with him saving you. He eventually went mad because of this." Shadow felt an unnatural feeling sweep over him. Was it a cruel surprise, or just a feeling of extreme shock? Shadow was still contemplating this when a voice said, "Shadow? What a surprise seeing you here!" Shadow turned around and saw Knuckles wearing sunglasses, and a pink bathing suit. Shadow burst out laughing. Tails stared at Knuckles as though he were an alien.

"Knux, that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen," said Tails, and he started laughing. If looks could kill, Tails would have died.

"He looks as stupid as I've always thought he was." stated Shadow. Knuckles turned beet red.

"Hmph! What're you two doing here?" asked Knuckles. Shadow would probably never come unless someone forced him into it. And Tails...well, he actually liked the pool.

"Cream called Amy and she dragged me over here..." muttered Shadow, looking down. They started telling jokes (or at least Tails did) when they heard a cry of help. There was Sonic in the eight-foot end, screaming for help.

"Oh no, Sonic! He can't swim! Someone, please go help him!" Tails screamed, not even bothering to hide the fear in his voice. Shadow, realizing he would regret this later, swam over to help the terrified hedgehog. As Sonic started to drown, Shadow pulled him up, and swam over to the side of the pool. With one swift movement, Shadow pushed Sonic onto land. Amy and Cream ran over to help Sonic when they realized there was a really big problem. Sonic wasn't breathing.


	4. Betrayal

Shadow's Life

Chapter 4

ShadTikal4ever does not own Sega or any of the Sonic characters.

Sonic wasn't breathing. Amy put her hands out and pushed hard on his chest. She released the pressure, and pushed again. After about six times, a miniature fountain of water gushed from his mouth, splattering on the ground under him. Amy hugged him as he stood up, but immediately drew back.

"Sonikku...what are you doing here?" Amy asked, a glint of either worry or fear in her eyes. When he didn't respond, she asked, "How did you fall in?" Since everyone knew he couldn't swim, they knew he wouldn't go in purposely. Sonic sighed.

"I escaped. I saw Shadow running past, so I broke free. Now, I can finally free myself of that memory...I can finally kill you!" he yelled. Amy jumped backwards in shock, whilst Cream looked confused. Finally, Shadow spoke up.

"No wonder I haven't seen you...you've locked up in the asylum!" Shadow said. He backed up, as though Sonic were a ghost. He remembered the old Sonic, back from the ARK, and looked at the Sonic in front of him. He knew, then and there, the old Sonic was gone.

"That's right, Shadow. And I broke out for one reason...to destroy both you, Shadow, and Eggman." Sonic said. Suddenly, Sonic dove forward, arms outstretched towards Shadow's neck. He nimbly stepped to the side, grabbed Sonic by the arm, and threw him down.

"I'll hold him down, Amy! You call the police about Sonic!" Shadow yelled as he pinned Sonic to the ground. Amy nodded as she ran off. Shadow knew it was his fault Sonic went crazy, so he had to be the one to stop Sonic. Sonic kicked out, ramming his feet into Shadow's stomach, knocking him into the water. Tails and Knuckles swam over to help and brought Shadow out of the water. As they charged at Sonic, Shadow fell back as Tails and Knuckles charged forward. When Sonic dodged Knuckles' punches and Tails' kicks, Shadow yelled, "CHAOS SPEAR!" and Sonic fell to the ground, golden bolts falling from the sky, converging upon him. Tails immediately kicked Sonic in the face. After that, they held Sonic down, until the police arrived with Amy.

"Hey, officer, we could use some help over here!" yelled Knuckles and Sonic kicked him off. The cop ran over and cuffed Sonic. He took Sonic, put him into the back of the car, and drove off. Shadow was confused, as was everyone else. Why had Sonic targeted him, after regretting his death? Shadow felt a little guilt when Amy said Sonic wanted to save him to the point of death. He couldn't believe that he, Shadow, had been the cause. And Shadow also felt a little sad, knowing that he couldn't have someone who he'd trusted to have around. In the next hour or so, everyone started leaving, until only Tails, Amy, and Shadow were left. Tails and Shadow were talking about Sonic, and Amy was just sitting down in a chair, staring into space. Shadow knew why, because she had once loved Sonic, and couldn't believe what had just happened in front of her own eyes.

"Hey, Shadow!" Amy yelled. She then began to walk over to him. Tails gave Shadow a look that clearly said: This is it! Shadow just gave Tails a glare in response. He fought both the Biolizard and the Final Hazard but neither made him get such an awkward feeling like this. Amy was next to Shadow, and he felt his stomach tighten.

"Umm, S-Shadow, yeah, I was w-w-wondering, erm, I don't know how to say this..." Amy stuttered

"...if you'll go out with me?" asked Shadow, attempting to finish her sentence. He looked mortified, realizing the double entendre. The words had shot out of his mouth before he could stop and think! Shadow started to think of ways to get out of the situation, while Tails shifted uneasily next to him. Amy reached out and embraced Shadow. Shadow returned the embrace somewhat awkwardly. Shadow's heart started beating, and fast.

"Oh, Shadow, I would love to go out with you!" cried Amy. Tails was embarrassed. As he started to silently walk away, Shadow said, "Alright Tails, let's go." Tails was telling stories about past missions he'd gone on with Sonic, and got to the fight with Perfect Chaos when they reached Amy's apartment building. To Shadow's surprise, Tails followed them until they reached the eighth floor.

"Shadow could we talk for a bit in my room? Thanks" said Tails as he led Shadow into his apartment. There were model planes everywhere, but some of them looked as though Perfect Chaos had a personal vendetta against them.

"Heh, those are wet because of a storm. My apartment in particular was flooded and it will take a few days to clean and dry it." said Tails, judging that by the way Shadow was staring at them.

"Look, the reason you're here is this: Eggman's launching another attack." said Tails.

"Seeing as he always does, I'm not surprised." Shadow said dryly.

"Point taken. But he musn't know about recent events." said Tails, a look of dread growing upon his face.

"As in our newest...development?" asked Shadow

"Exactly. He'd use her for bait again." Tails commented, sighing.

"Then I just won't allow the Doctor to do that." Shadow replied, a bit of an annoyed tone creeping into his otherwise cool voice. Shadow said good-bye to Tails and left. As he climbed up the stairs, he pondered about what would happen.

'What if I lose her like Maria...I can't! I can't lose her too!' Shadow thought. But as he got to Amy's apartment, a piercing scream was heard from inside the apartment.

"AMY!"


	5. Sonic's True Colors

Chapter 5

ShadTikal4ever doesn't own Sega or any Sonic characters.

"Amy!" Shadow exclaimed as he barged in through the door. Shadow stopped, and his eyes widened. Sonic had Amy's struggling form in a tight embrace, and was giving her a one-sided kiss. Amy's arms were pushing against Sonic's shoulders, but the blue hedgehog had her in a death grip. Shadow felt the familiar fire of revenge start to flare up. 'How dare Faker do this to her!" Shadow thought angrily.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow yelled, outstretching his hand. Sonic looked up as a lone bolt crashed into him, sending him flying, tearing his arm. Amy instantly ran behind Shadow, desperate to get away from the man she'd once called a hero. Sonic, realizing his chance was lost, then jumped out the window, cursing under his breath. Amy could only stare at the hole in her window, and Shadow had a moment to figure out what happened now that Sonic was gone.

"Amy! How did Sonic get in?" Shadow asked. Amy, not wanting to re-experience the event nor displease Shadow, hesitated, before trying to speak through her sobs.

"He said he was you! He got here mere seconds before you did! H-h-h knocked o-on the d-d-door, saying 'O-o-open u-up, i-it's me, S-s-shadow!' h-he sounded j-j-just like you! S-so I o-opened it and i-it was S-sonic! Then h-he e-embraced me a-and t-then you came i-in as i-I screamed, a-and he k-kissed me!" stuttered Amy. She then broke into tears. Shadow felt a twang of guilt now. 'Sounds like he really got to her' Shadow thought. He put a comforting arm around Amy and tried to console her.

"Hey, don't worry about it. He's not in the right state of mind, or so I've heard. I promise you, I will protect you at all costs, so history will not repeat itself again." Shadow said quietly. Amy turned around, her eyes puffy and her face red. She then ran out of the room, and into the bathroom. There was a faint 'click' as Amy locked the door. Shadow, the flame of vengeance burning at his insides, made a quick decision and jumped through the already broken window, and ran off.

Shadow looked everywhere for Sonic. He checked the abandoned alleyways, warehouses, even the pool, as though Sonic might return. Shadow felt something wet tap on his shoulder, so he looked up and saw that it started to rain. Deciding to check after the rain, Shadow took off to go back to the apartment. He was about halfway there when he heard a faint "Sonic Wind!" Shadow quickly leaped forward, but he was too slow: he was swept out of the air and thrown backwards onto the road. He looked up to see Sonic standing right in front of him, only this time, he looked considerably more normal then at the pool.

"So there you are, Shadow! I can finally get you alone now. You stole Amy Rose, my one love, away from me...I won't let you live!" Sonic cried as he charged forward. Shadow, completely unprepared for any of this, jumped to his feet in time to receive a punch in the jaw. Shadow was pushed backwards, but kept his balance. As he slowed to a stop, he felt his cheek, and gasped. There was fresh blood pouring over his cheek. 'Where did Sonic get this power from?' Shadow asked himself. He looked up to see Sonic, completely enraged. Sonic disappeared in a blur. Shadow's eyes widened, then narrowed. For the first time, Sonic was faster then Shadow could see. Then, Sonic kicked Shadow in the stomach. Shadow, holding his gut, fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. He cried out in pain, and blood shot from his mouth. Shadow had never known pain like this before. He was on his knees, gasping for breath.

"Time to finish you off, Shadow!" said Sonic. He pulled out a gun and cocked it. Shadow quickly slipped his hand into his pocket, and grabbed the red Chaos Emerald.

"Any last words before you die? I can wait." said Sonic. Sonic then gave Shadow a sinister smile.

"Thank you for your...generosity. CHAOS CONTROL!" yelled Shadow, and there was a flash of jade light, and he disappeared. Sonic, in his anger, shot the gun towards the city, hitting a pedestrian in the chest.

Moments later, a bright flash of green light appeared in Amy's apartment, and there stood Shadow, in pain, a wound on his cheek bleeding badly. He clutched his stomach. It even hurt him to breathe. He looked down to see blood flowing freely from the deep wound on his stomach. The last thing he heard was someone coming into the room. As Amy came in, wondering what the green light was, Shadow collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach with one hand, and holding the Chaos Emerald in another, blood staining the carpet. Amy screamed in terror at the sight.

Halfway across the city, in an old warehouse, Sonic was creating a powerful, destructive robot, one that would be able to help him achieve even his darkest of goals.

"Soon, with Shadow gone, not only will Amy be mine, but the whole world will fall to the Sonic Empire!" Sonic yelled. Suddenly, a robot sat up, red eyes gleaming in the darkness.

"Master Sonic, what is my mission?" the robot asked in an emotionless, metallic voice.

"To eliminate my dear, old friends Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, and Cream! And if you see Amy, capture her and bring here back here! That is your mission! " Sonic said. Then, he started laughing maniacally. Little did Sonic know that there would be one fatal miscalculation.

That's my story so far. I'm trying to make my stories longer each time. Oh, and thanks, BehindtheShadow, and Jayln the Hedgehog, for being the only two people to actually review so far. Thanks a lot! And I'm sorry any spelling mistakes, I don't really proofread that much. Chapter Six will be longer, if not, then close. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	6. A Hero's Last Stand

Chapter 6

ShadTikal4ever does not own Sega, or any of the Sonic characters. I wish I did though.

Amy was rushing through the rain, carrying Shadow. He was nearing critical condition, and the hospital was still a ways away. As Amy recounted the day's events, she felt scared and sad. If she had not ran into the bathroom, Shadow wouldn't have gotten hurt. If she hadn't fallen for Sonic's trick, Shadow wouldn't have gotten mad. Tears started to fall as Amy ran. Shadow's breathing was in raspy gasps. If she ran into Sonic, well, he would regret even meeting her.

Many people along the way tried to stop her to look at the injured hedgehog. Amy ran through them, and even hurt some of them to get by. Finally, as she got to the hospital, a whole crowd of people blocked the entrance.

"Shadow..." a few people said as they moved out of the way. But the rest of them stayed. Amy couldn't stand it anymore. Shadow's breathing and turned into even more raspy gasping.

"ARE YOU SO DESPERATE TO SEE A HERO DYING THAT YOU PEOPLE WOULD GO SO FAR AS TO BLOCK THE ENTERANCE TO THE HOSPITAL?" Amy yelled at the mob. The mob then parted, but Shadow's breathing was stopping. Amy ran inside, and gasped at what she saw. Inside the waiting room were none other then Tails and Knuckles. They turned around to see Amy carrying Shadow.

"Shadow! Amy, what happened?" Knuckles demanded. Amy shook her head no, and sprinted to find a doctor. She found on after a few minutes of searching, and he took Shadow into a room. Amy, tears in her eyes, walked back to the waiting room, head tilted down. She walked into someone, and fell backwards.

"Oh, I'm s-s-sorry..." Amy stuttered. She looked up and saw the one thing that made her life worse. A person who looked like Sonic the Hedgehog.

Back in the waiting room...

"I should have helped. I told him someone, presumably Eggman was behind a new attack...he went to protect Amy, and I heard a scream. I thought Shadow would stop whatever, but I was wrong. WRONG!" Tails moped. As Knuckles went to calm Tails down, (and ask why Tails brought him here) a scream was heard coming in the direction of "AMY!" Knuckles yelled. Knuckles grabbed Tails by the ankles and they flew towards the direction of the scream.

Shadow's hospital room...

Shadow woke up with a start. He could have sworn he heard a scream. As his hand felt his cheek, he felt a papery substance. He looked down at his stomach. His whole lower chest was covered in bandages. He looked out the window in time to see Tails and Knuckles fly by his room. Shadow gasped. If Tails and Knuckles were flying by...and if the angry, yet scared looks on their faces meant anything...Shadow bolted out the door. Amy was in trouble...again! He easily caught up to Tails and Knuckles.

"What happened? Was it Amy?" Shadow asked. Before Knuckles said anything, Shadow found out for himself. Up against the side of the hallway was Amy. Next to her was Sonic. In his hand was a machine gun. He laughed.

"Don't come any closer, heroes! One more step and this hospital will have another mess on their hands! Ha HA!" Sonic exclaimed. Shadow was looking murderous. His gleaming red eyes showed only hate and anger. Amy, however, was sad. She'd fallen for another trick! Amy's green eyes showed only sadness. Tails, on the other hand, looked shellshocked. His best friend, attempting murder? Knuckles, on the other hand, showed no emotion. Shadow glared at Knuckles. Either his head was too full off fluff to understand, or he...wait, was that a look of happiness in Knuckles' eyes? Knuckles smiled.

"Sonic, you have really done a good job...that is, for a robot copy!" Knuckles stated. Amy and Shadow looked at him in awe. Knuckles, not only had he said something smart, he had actually realized something before Tails did! Tails, on the other hand, looked like a bomb went off. He stared at Knuckles. Knuckles just smiled. Suddenly, a loud bang was heard, Knuckles eyes widened, showing fear and pain in the deep purple, and he fell to the floor. There was a bullet hole in the top left part of his back.

Sonic stepped out from the shadows, this time the real Sonic. He laughed.

"So this is the pitiful end of my old friend, Knuckles the Echidna! Looks like my robot clone did the job very well!" Sonic laughed. Amy's eyes began to brim with tears, Shadow began to pull his gun out, and Tails fell to his knees. He couldn't believe what was happening. Knuckles had helped him so many times, and now Knuckles would never be able to talk to him ever again.

"Good bye, Knuckles the Echidna, warrior, Guardian of the Master Emerald..." Tails said, as he burst out in tears. Whilst Sonic was laughing, Shadow pointed his gun at Sonic's head, and cocked the gun. And Amy, tears brimming, took out her Piko Piko hammer from her pocket, or wherever she keeps it. Her eyes showed deep, immense hate, burning with the desire to destroy Sonic, the hedgehog she had once loved. No one in this room knew what was about to happen, but little did they know that what did happen has changed their lives...

Well, that was the end of Chapter 6. Poor Knuckles. Don't worry too much. Heh, a lot of shockers in the seventh chapter, not to mention the return of a brand new character. I will describe the character next time. Yeah, and thank you for reviewing, kai-senpai, Chips Dip, Jayln the Hedgehog, and BehindtheShadow for reviewing. And kai-senpai, one of your wishes will be granted. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	7. New Hero's Awakening

Chapter 7 Death of a Hero

ShadTikal4ever doesn't own Sega, or any of the Sonic characters. I wish I did, though.

Character Bio!

Name:V.B.

Age: 16

Race:Hedgehog

Colour:Green

Hobbies: videogames, running

Special Abilties: As well as Chaos Control, he has Chaos Strike, and the ability to bring dead people back to life, at the cost of his own.

Shadow, ticked, aimed his pistol at Sonic's forehead. Tails was on his knees, crying over the loss of Knuckles the Echidna. And Amy's body was burning with the fires of a thousand good deeds as she pulled out her Piko Piko hammer. Sonic was laughing his head off. But Sonic's robot was scanning what had happened. When its ruby red eyes scanned over Tails, it stopped immediately.

"Chosen One found. Can become strongest creature on Earth. Current Status: Normal." The Sonic robot (let's call him Robo from now on) said in its flat, metallic voice. Suddenly, Amy shot forward, reaching speeds not even Hyper Shadow could reach. She smashed Sonic on the head with her hammer as hard as she could, making Sonic see stars. Shadow then shot Sonic in the arm, making him lose any control of it. But something strange was happening to Tails. His deep, sapphire blue eyes were showing pure hatred, and anger. Tails, showing anger beyond all control, jumped into the air, emitting a strong, red light. Fierce wind began rushing throughout the hallway, blowing Knuckles' body away. Shadow embraced himself for impact. After a few seconds, the light subsided, and the fierce wind died down. Where Tails was standing/floating moments before, was a taller, fire engine red fox with two tails, and deep, flaming red eyes that could pierce metal. He also managed to get a shiny, turquoise blue cape that flew in the wind.

"Sonic...what you've done is unforgivable...UNFORGIVABLE!" said Turbo Tails angrily. Then, Turbo Tails charged at Sonic, and started attacking him. He punched Sonic in the gut, and when he doubled over, gloves soaked with blood, Turbo Tails gave Sonic a right uppercut. Sonic flew backwards into the wall, smashing it. There was blood all over Sonic's jaw, and his gut was showing no sign of stopping the flow. Sonic, sensing immense danger (finally) took out the black Chaos Emerald with his left hand.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Sonic yelled, disappearing in a flash of green light just before Turbo Tails punched what would be his chin. Turbo Tails, relieved, was then covered in a flash of red light, and turned back into Tails. Tails flew back down to the ground, panting. They heard whimpering from the hallway where Tails was. He turned to see a bright green hedgehog, backed into the corner, cowering in fear at the sight of Turbo Tails. Tails came over to him.

"Are...are you ok?" Tails asked the hedgehog.

"Yeah...that was scary!" the green hedgehog replied. He stood up, and brushed the dust off himself.

"I'm sorry, we haven't been properly introduced. I'm V.B. the Hedgehog. And you're Tails, the hero of Station Square!" V.B. said. Tails gasped. If this guy found out about him attacking Sonic, then his reputation would be completely shattered. V.B. calmed down, no longer shaking. He took a deep breath.

"Tails, the reason I was scared was because of the emotions in your eyes. I saw hatred, anger, and revenge. I know something really bad must have happened for that to happen, but please try and control yourself. You could injure those you care about, even if you don't mean to." V.B. said. Then, Amy ran in, alongside Shadow. Shadow was carrying Knuckles' body, covered in soot from the wind.

"Oh my gosh.." said V.B as he saw the body. 'So that's what ticked off Tails..' V.B. thought to himself.

At Sonic's Lab/abandoned warehouse...

Sonic was completely happy. He had eliminated the strongest of his enemies! Sonic grinned, just at the thought! Robo was standing next to him. If Robo could smile, he would. He made his master proud. Sonic started typing on his computer. A picture of Cream the Rabbit appeared, as well as info about her, including where she lived, and who she was related to.

"Robo! Your current mission is to find and destroy Cream the Rabbit! And failure will not be tolerated!" Sonic yelled. Robo gave a salute, and flew/ran off into the distance.

Back at Amy's apartment...

V.B. was consoling Tails, who was the only sane member of Team Sonic left, in the living room. Amy was in the kitchen, cooking something for poor, mortified Tails. Shadow was running around somewhere in Station Square. When someone knocked on the door, Tails ran to get it, hoping it might distract him. As he opened it, he saw a familiar face.

"Cream! Please, come in!" Tails greeted warmly. Cream nodded her thanks as she walked in. Cream walked over to where V.B. was, and turned on the T.V.

"Everyone, you might want to see this..." Cream said. Amy rushed in to the room from the kitchen at the sound of Cream's voice, Tails walked over from the doorway, and V.B. simply turned his head towards the screen.

"Everyone, today is a day that will change Earth. Sonic the Hedgehog, the hero who has saved us all from destruction many times, has joined forces with the evil Dr. Eggman publicly, and has denounced his hero ways." the newscaster announced. Cream turned off the T.V. Tails looked as though someone was shot; Amy was staggering backwards, fear showing in her emerald green eyes, and V.B. gasped in terror, his eyes widening. As though on cue, Shadow ran into the room, stopping a few feet in front of everyone.

"Why does everyone look so mortified? It's not like we lost another friend..." Shadow stated, expecting that they actually had.

"Shadow, we have bad news." Shadow gulped. "Sonic and Eggman have joined forces. If Sonic knows where we live, he could rid the world of all of us." Amy stated; her emerald green eyes on the brink of tears. Shadow's jaw dropped a foot, and he caught himself. 'Faker is the last person I would have guessed to change alliances...especially to join Dr. Eggman, of all people!' Shadow thought. Then he thought about some of Sonic's past words.

Flashback

_"That's right, Shadow. And I broke out for one reason...to destroy both you, Shadow, and Eggman." Sonic said. _

End Flashback

Shadow told everyone about this piece of news. Tails gasped in surprise. Everyone turned to look at him. Amy knew he was about to say something smart, and slightly smiled.

"I know why he did it! I know why Sonic joined Eggman, even though he said he'd said he would destroy him! It's because..."

Heh, this is the end of chapter 7. I hope this is a good cliffhanger. I'm glad that some people are reviewing now. The shockers I mentioned were the return of Eggman, Sonic joining Eggman, and Turbo Tails making his appearance. OK, they probably were somewhat expected, but still! Not much of anything in this chapter that applies to any kind of genre. A little action, that's all. Oh, and DarknessofDepression? I'm not girlie, 'cause I'm not a girl. Yeah...I guess that's it. Please review. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	8. Fallen Hero Restored

Chapter 8

ShadTikal4ever does not own Sega or any of the Sonic characters. I only wish I did.

"-Eggman's using a mind control device on Sonic!" Tails finished, smiling. Amy looked at Tails in awe, whilst the rest of them looked confused. Tails' smile fell from his face. "Didn't any of you look at Sonic's eyes?" Tails asked. Everyone shook their heads no except for Amy. "His eyes are normally emerald green, yet they were an illuminating yellow, with no emotion in them at all!" Tails said angrily. Amy gasped.

"Guys, if Sonic's being mind controlled by Eggman, than Eggman may not know about us losing Knuckles, and.." Amy started, but V.B. cut her off.

"It's possible to bring Knuckles back." He said. Tails flung himself at V.B., his eyes were full of anger.

"Why didn't you tell us this before? Why didn't you do it before?" Tails yelled as he pinned V.B. to the wall by his throat.

"You don't understand. If I bring back Knuckles then I will die, and Knuckles won't be able to move at all, unless I sacrifice my spirit, too, meaning my body will explode, destroying everything around me, but then Knuckles will be back to his old self, assuming he survives the blast!" V.B. said. Tails removed his grip, and V.B. fell onto the floor. Then, Shadow blinked, realizing something.

"V.B.! We could clone you, and have the clone die, and bring back Knuckles! And if his body explodes, we can have more clones protecting Knuckles!" Shadow exclaimed. Amy ran up and hugged Shadow tightly.

"Oh Shadow, that's such a great idea!" Amy said happily. Shadow started coughing, and Amy let go. Shadow looked into her entrancing emerald eyes. Shadow looked down, blushing slightly.

"Erm, thanks, erm, Amy." Shadow said quietly. Tails just stared, deciding whether to laugh or not. Cream blushed too, for some odd reason. And V.B. was considering the plan from every angle. There was only one problem.

"Hey Shadow? How exactly do we get to the cloning mac.." V.B. started. There was a loud crash, as Robo came through the window right next to Cream. Robo's ruby red eyes bored into Cream's chocolate brown ones.

"Cream the Rabbit, by order of my Master, you are to be annihilated." Robo said. Cream, scared backed up. Tails jumped in front of her, his arms outstretched. Shadow took out his pistol, and Amy took out her Piko Piko hammer. Out of nowhere, V.B. took out the purple Chaos Emerald. (That makes 3 emeralds, Shadow's, Sonic's, and V.B.'s) As Amy ran up to Robo to maul him with his hammer, he punched her in the cheek, and she flew back into the kitchen. As Robo turned his attention to Cream, Shadow came and punched Robo in the face. Robo staggered backwards, then stood upright. There was no mark where Shadow had punched him. Shadow's eyes widened.

"Tails, take Cream and run, I'll hold him off! GO!" Shadow yelled. But as Tails took off, Robo slashed Tails in the chest. Tails then fell to the ground, blood staining the pink carpet. V.B., out of the blue, pointed his hand at Robo, and yelled, "CHAOS STRIKE!" Robo was hit by thousands of green bolts, and fell back out of the window from the force of the blow. Cream gasped. In V.B.'s sapphire blue eyes, there was anger, and revenge. V.B. suddenly gasped, and all anger faded away.

"Shadow, Cream, we need to tend to Amy's and Tails' wounds. We won't go to the hospital, due to what happened last time..." V.B. said. Shadow ran into the kitchen, and brought Amy onto the couch, whilst Cream picked up Tails. Cream looked at Tails, and at the gash in his chest. She couldn't help but think 'Hey, Tails looks handsome when he's asleep...oh gosh, did I just think that?' She hurried to bring Tails over to the other couch. V.B. took out the bandages and slowly wrapped them around Tails' chest, and Amy's cheek. Once that was done, Shadow couldn't help but ask a question.

"Hey, V.B., when did you learn Chaos Strike? And can I call you Vinny?" Shadow asked.

"You may call me Vinny, Shadow, and I don't know how I learned Chaos Strike...I just...used it." Vinny replied. He was just as confused about the Chaos Strike as Shadow was. All he knew was this: it was strong.

"Hey, Shadow? Do you think I can use Chaos Control now?" Vinny asked Shadow. Shadow merely shrugged. He probably could, but he might not.

"I-I hope he can, b-b-because I wanna f-f-find a safe spot, M-mr. Shadow."

Shadow stared at Cream. That was actually a sensible idea. Suddenly, Shadow had a plan.

"Vinny, we need to use Chaos Control, make clones of yourself, and resurrect

Knuckles. Once that's done, we need to go to Angel Island. Eggman will never look

there." Shadow said. Vinny nodded. Vinny picked up both Amy and Tails, and Shadow warped them all to Eggman's old base that had the cloning machine in it, in a single flash of green light. Vinny laid down Amy and Tails, then stepped into the machine. The machine had one main tube, and a lot of tubes to the sides. A glass dome surrounded the tube. Once Vinny stepped inside the tube, it immediately closed. A strong green light appeared in the tube, and Vinny yelled in pain. Shadow and Cream shielded their eyes. Once the light disappeared, 10 Vinny's stepped out of the tube. A single Vinny stepped in front of the rest, holding the purple Chaos Emerald.

"Well Shadow, I think it worked." Vinny said. Shadow then warped back to the apartment building, and they picked up Knuckles. They then teleported straight to Angel Island in a flash of green light. Vinny was amazed. He had never seen something so...beautiful. There were trees everywhere, and it was nice and quiet. Something told Vinny he would like this place a lot if he stayed here.

"Vinny, we need to do this now. Leave all of your clones here, as well as Knuckles." Shadow ordered, snapping Vinny back into reality. He put down Knuckles, and had all the clones surround one of the other clones. Then, that clone began to chant mystical words. Shadow motioned for the others to follow him. As Shadow ran through the jungle, he felt happy. He knew Tails would be too.

"We should be far enough now. We should rest." Shadow said. Cream nodded her head. She laid down on the ground, and fell asleep in seconds. Vinny couldn't help but wonder why the resurrection ceremony hadn't ended yet. As he pondered this for a few moments, Tails and Amy woke up, dazed. Tails was confused, but when he saw that Cream was alright, he smiled. Amy ran up and hugged Shadow, happy that he was alive. Shadow looked into her enchanting emerald eyes, while she looked into his deep, ruby red eyes. Their faces got closer and closer, until they kissed. Vinny turned around coughing. Tails was staring at Cream, and Amy and Shadow were...temporarily occupied. Suddenly, there was a giant BANG in the distance. Cream woke up, and Shadow and Amy parted.

"The resurrection ceremony is complete!" Vinny yelled. Tails looked confused. Resurrection? Then he remembered what Vinny told him about the resurrection. He grinned from ear to ear, as his sapphire blue eyes brimmed with tears. Amy smiled, knowing that Knuckles was finally back with them once again. And Cream looked half asleep, until she ran towards Tails, and threw her arms around him. Tails deeply blushed.

"Everyone ready? CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow yelled, as a flash of green light engulfed them all. They appeared in a crater that had a 50 yard diameter. Shadow was surprised. 'No wonder Vinny didn't want to do this, it would have destroyed part of Station Square!' Shadow thought. Cream stepped back in shock. A figure stood up from the center of the crater. As it walked over to them, he said, "Hi, guys!" Tails ran over, yelling "KNUCKLES!" Tails then hugged Knuckles. Knuckles smiled. For a moment, his eyes flashed red, then back to purple. Robo, who shapeshifted in Knuckles, thought in his head 'Master will be pleased. Real Knuckles is at the Master Emerald Altar. I can now dispose of them and make it look like Knuckles did it.' Then, Robo looked down at young Tails in his arms. This mission was going too easily for him.

Heh, that's the end of chapter 8. Knuckles is alive, but at the Master Emerald altar. I told you not to worry! Yeah, so far in Shadow and the group's eyes, everything is going according to plan. Please read and review. That's just about it. I hope everyone enjoys this story! Heh, this was probably mostly science fiction, but oh well. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	9. An Almost Peaceful Day

Chapter 9

ShadTikal4ever does not own Sega, nor do I own Sonic, or any other characters. I do own Vinny, though.

Tails, Robo (who looks like Knuckles), Amy, and Cream all went to bed after they returned to their campsite. Shadow was teaching Vinny how to use Chaos Control, and Chaos Strike without a Chaos Emerald. Vinny was ready to go to bed when he found out that he couldn't fall asleep!

"The chaos energies are inside you now, like they are inside of me, Vinny." Shadow said. "With them inside of us, we can never go to sleep." Shadow continued. Vinny grinned. Right next to Shadow, there was rustling in on of the trees and out fell...Knuckles the Echidna? Vinny gasped, while Shadow merely said "Crud."

"Shadow! I'm glad I found you. I need to know, what happened? I remember a bang, and then everything went dark. Then, I heard an explosion, and woke up at the Master Emerald alter! Can you guys explain it?" Knuckles asked. Shadow and Vinny looked at each other. They realized that one must be a robot copy, and the other the real deal. Shadow blinked. His story seemed accurate, he couldn't possible know how he died. But then, why hasn't he asked...

"Shadow! How's Amy? And who's this guy?" Knuckles asked, pointing at Vinny. Shadow and Vinny stared at each other. Vinny finally nodded. He turned to Knuckles.

"Amy is fine, and I am Vinny the Hedgehog, at your service." Vinny said. Knuckles gave him a look that clearly said 'Huh?' Shadow fought the urge to laugh at Knuckles' stupidity. "Wait a second...this must be the real Knuckles! The Knuckles I remember wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed! Actually, he's the dullest.' Shadow thought, restraining the urge to laugh.

"Vinny, he's the real deal. C'mon Knuckles, follow us." Shadow said. Vinny nodded, and began to walk away along with Shadow. Knuckles followed, but with a confused look on his face. Once they got back to the camp, Knuckles looked worried at the bandages on Amy's face, and those on Tails' chest.

"Hey, guys, girls, GET UP!" Shadow yelled. Everyone bolted up except for Robo/Knuckles. Tails backed away, not knowing what to believe. Amy gasped, while Cream looked...happy.

"Wow! There are two Mr. Knuckles! That means we have a better chance!" Cream squealed with excitement.

"No way! He's obviously a robot copy!" Robo/Knuckles exclaimed. Shadow laughed. Tails thought Shadow was on something...again.

"Don't you see, fool? You are the robot copy because if Knuckles was dead, there's no way he would know about one! You gave yourself away, ROBO!" Shadow exclaimed. Robo then shape shifted back into Sonic. He looked furious with himself. Knuckles was as confused as ever. Finally, everything registered in his brain. He ran forward, and attacked the robot. Robo went to block, but it was no use. Knuckles' punch was too strong. Knuckles kept up his punches, knocking screws and bolts loose. Soon, they were near the edge of Angel Island.

"You're stuck now! Prepare to taste defeat, Robo!" Knuckles exclaimed. Before he could knock Robo of the edge, Robo did the weirdest thing.

"You'll never take me! SUICIDE!" Robo yelled as he jumped off of Angel Island. (Author's note. My friend did the exact same thing, words and everything, in a video game.) Knuckles sweat dropped. Vinny's jaw dropped to the ground. And of course, Shadow was filming all this (no idea where he got the camera) muttering, "Blackmail! Blackmail!" to himself. Tails started laughing at Robo's remark, while Cream and Amy were discussing what happened after Amy was knocked out. Once Vinny and Knuckles recovered from this...incident, and Shadow lost sight of Robo, they all began to formulate the plan to Knuckles, who was dead at the time, and Amy and Tails, who were knocked out.

"So you're saying I owe Vinny my _life_! Wow, thanks, Vinny!" Knuckles said. I grinned. After that, Knuckles was considerably nicer to me. Knuckles immediately stood up, and pointed at a nearby tree.

"Whoever's in their, you'd better come out!" Knuckles threatened. A figure popped out of the tree, and flew gracefully to the ground. It was Rouge the Bat, and she'd been eavesdropping! Shadow's heart skipped a beat. If Rouge told the government about this, they'd try to kill and dissect Shadow! Shadow stepped back, trembling.

"Oh, Shadow, do calm done. I won't report any of this to G.U.N." Rouge said. Shadow sighed in relief.

"And I also saw that Sonic teamed up with Eggman. Can you believe it?" Rouge asked. Shadow stood up.

"Well, I can, considering his robot, Robo, has attempted to kill us three times already! The first time, Knuckles died, the second, Amy and Tails were hurt, and the third...it did suicide." said Shadow. "But Knuckles is alive and well again" Shadow quickly added. Rouge looked at Shadow oddly.

"Look, I guess you'll need my help in order to survive. I will help, I guess." Sighed Rouge as she walked right next to Knuckles. Cream yawned very, very loudly.

"C'mon guys, time for bed." Rouge stated. One by one, they all fell asleep, except for Shadow and Vinny, who would keep watch.

The next morning, Amy was the first to wake up. She hugged Shadow, glad he was alright, and then started a conversation between Shadow and Vinny. Shadow didn't really enjoy this conversation. It kept straying back to the night Sonic kissed Amy, and Shadow found it very aggravating. He was very happy when Cream woke up, because she'd keep the conversation on what they would do next. After that, Tails, Rouge, and Knuckles got up. Knuckles told the others to follow him to his house. As they passed the Master Emerald, Rouge eyed it carefully.

"This is my house. Please wait in my room while I cook breakfast." Knuckles announced. When they saw his house, they gasped in surprise. It was a log cabin, complete with windows and a chimney. Once inside, they saw that there were three rooms: a bathroom, a kitchen, and a bedroom. Inside the bedroom was a small T.V., a small stack of movies, a bed with red sheets, and a clock with a picture of the Master Emerald on it. Cream and Amy sat down on the bed, Rouge stared at the clock, and Shadow put in one of Knuckles' movies in, Shaolin Soccer. About halfway through the movie, Knuckles called "Breakfast!" As Shadow walked in he gasped, while Tails said "Holy crap!" Vinny hit him on the head, scolding him for saying that word. There were piles of pancakes, waffles, little bowls of strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, and to cap it all off, there were bowls of cereal there.

"Wow, you didn't have to make this much, Knuckles!" Shadow said. Knuckles chuckled.

"Its things like this that let you know you're alive. Please, help yourselves." Knuckles said, smiling. And so they did. Cream took a few pancakes, and put strawberries on them. Amy took waffles, and covered them with blueberries. Tails took a little of everything and ate it like he hadn't eaten in weeks. Shadow took a bowl of cereal, and Vinny took some pancakes.

"Jeez, slow down Tails, or you'll choke on your food!" Vinny said. Tails just ignored him, and kept eating. Shadow stared at him, his eyes wide, and jaw hanging.

'How can such a little fox eat so much?' Shadow thought. Vinny couldn't help but laugh. Cream even smiled.

"Thank you Mr. Knuckles, that was delicious!" said Cream happily. Knuckles beamed at her. Then he realized something. Vinny, even though he acted as a parent to Tails sometimes, could act like a kid himself.

"Vinny, how old are you?" Knuckles asked. Rouge glared at him. Amy gagged, and Tails started choking. Cream started thumping Tails on the back.

"I'm 16, why do you ask?" Vinny replied. Suddenly, Tails coughed up a fork, which would have stabbed Shadow if he hadn't moved out of the way. Instead, it pierced the wood right behind him. Shadow looked back and saw how close it was to stabbing him, while Knuckles roared with laughter. Tails stared down as his feet, and the girls looked as though he had grown a second head.

"Huh?" Shadow said as he looked outside. Shadow could have sworn he just saw a blue blur pass right next to the window. After a few minutes, however, Shadow reluctantly sat down.

"Shadow, even though I saw it too. But it's not like Sonic is standing behind a tree, holding a gun, with a laser attachment to help him aim, and is trying to kill us. If he was, we'd all have to duck and cover. If anyone sees a red dot, however, duck and cover!" Knuckles said. Everyone stared at Knuckles. He actually said something smart for the second time in two days!

Outside Knuckles' House, and behind a tree.

Sonic cocked the gun. He made sure he had his laser attachment to help him aim. How Shadow and Knuckles saw him, he didn't know, but didn't care. Sonic took care to find a spot where the red dot wasn't noticeable. He placed on the back of Shadow's head, and no one saw it. Sonic grinned. This would be a piece of cake.

Heh, that's the end of chapter nine. I'm sorry for any...confusion there may be, but the chapters take a few hours to update publicly. Yeah...and I think I agree with Shadow in your review, kai-senpai. And DarknessofDepression, I forgive you. Yeah, please read and review! Heh, I think that's it! Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	10. Chaos Emeralds Galore

Chapter 10

ShadTikal4ever does not own Amy, Tails, Sonic, Rouge, Knuckles, Cream, or Shadow. Sega does. I do, however, own Robo, and Vinny.

Shadow was listening to another of Tails' jokes, unaware of the red dot on the back of his head. And of course, Tails started choking again! Shadow rolled his eyes. Shadow leaned back casually, his chair on its hind two legs. Vinny noticed that something wasn't right, but he didn't know what. Suddenly, Shadow fell backwards, and everyone laughed. But not even a second after he fell, there was a very loud bang, and Shadow gasped. In the wall right in front of where his head was were five bullets.

"DUCK AND COVER! DUCK AND COVER!" Shadow yelled. Everyone got down except for Tails, who took out a metal plate and followed the dot closely with his eyes. Then, the dot slowly inched its way to Tails' chest. Tails put the metal plate over it, and the ruby red dot shone brightly against the metal plate. Then, they heard gunfire. Tails just stood there, wide-eyed. They heard someone scream in pain outside, and they turned to see Sonic, coming out from behind a tree, holding a pistol with a laser attachment. Knuckles babbled, not believing what he was seeing.

"Mr. Knuckles, you're psychic!" Cream said excitedly. Knuckles sweat dropped.

"I was actually being sarcastic when I said that..."Knuckles said. Everyone stared at him. Shadow was bewildered. 'Wow! Knuckles, while being sarcastic, found a way to save us all! So I owe Knuckles my life, and Knuckles owes his to Vinny...we're going to have a long cycle of this!' Shadow thought.

"I'M GONNA GET YOU FOR THIS!" Sonic yelled. They all turned. Sonic was bleeding badly from his chest, where the rebounded shot hit him. Tails gasped. His precision and quick-thinking nearly took out Sonic! Sonic glared at Tails, and warped away somewhere in a bright flash of green light. Cream ran up and hugged Tails.

"Tails, you helped save us all!" Cream cried. Shadow didn't know why, but something made him laugh. Tails blushed, and that made everyone else laugh, except for Rouge, who was in the bathroom, putting on make-up or something.

"Yeah...do we have a plan or something? Something tells me we're going to make a plan, as well as finding a new hiding spot." Vinny stated. Shadow nodded, while Tails gathered quite a few of the metal plates. Cream smiled. Tails then took the plates, separated them into 8 piles, and then managed to fuse them together with maple syrup.

"There! I've just made bulletproof armour of all of us! It covers our heads and chests, protecting all of our vital points!" Tails exclaimed happily. Shadow put his on. It fit his quills perfectly, and had holes for his eyes. And even better, it smelt really good! After looking at Shadow, everyone else put theirs on.

"How do I look?" asked Rouge as she stepped out of the bathroom. Everyone just stared. Rouge walked over to the remaining metal plates, and put them on. She then took off the chest plate, and sliced two tiny slits in the back. Rouge put it back on, and her wings slid through the slits.

"Okay everyone, I think we're ready to go fight Eggman. Only one problem: How do we get there?" asked Amy. Everyone shrugged, except for Shadow. Suddenly, a brick smashed through the window, and hit Amy in the head. Amy, who was unharmed due to the armour, picked up the brick. She then untied the paper, and read it.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Amy groaned. She looked outside, and saw a huge castle outside by the edge of Angel Island. Shadow took the paper, and read it. He showed to everyone else, cursing himself for his stupidity. The paper said 'Look out the window.' Knuckles simply looked out the window, and generated anger. How could he have not seen the huge castle that was on Angel Island? Tails started hitting his head on the wall, and Vinny punched himself on the head.

"Hey, just in case, we should get all of the Chaos Emeralds, because we may need our most powerful forms: Hyper Shadow, Hyper Knuckles, and Turbo Tails." Vinny said. Tails nodded. Vinny held out the purple Emerald, Shadow took out the green Emerald, and Tails took out the white Emerald. Shadow sweat dropped.

"Hey, Tails? Why didn't you ever tell us you had the white Emerald?" Shadow asked. The white Emerald could have been really handy in the past.

"You never asked!" Tails said. Shadow wanted to slap Tails. But before he did, Rouge took out the orange Emerald. And Cream took out the azure Chaos Emerald. Shadow looked angry enough to kill. Finally, Amy took out the red Emerald. Shadow slapped himself on the forehead. They had all but one of the Chaos Emeralds!

"If you four had Chaos Emeralds, why didn't you say something?" Shadow yelled. Vinny sweat dropped. Knuckles started laughing, and Tails quietly walked out of the room.

"You never asked!" Amy said with a smug grin. It was the wrong thing to say. Shadow took out his gun, and threatened to shoot. Knuckles grinned.

"Hey, Shadow, can we just go attack Eggman now?" Knuckles asked. Shadow took a deep breath, and put the gun away. Tails walked back into the room.

"Guess what? I made a giant bomb to blow up Eggman's fortress!" Tails exclaimed. In his hands was what looked like a football? Tails grinned. Shadow shrugged. Then, Knuckles ran out of his house, as fast as he could. Shadow rolled his eyes. Leave it to Knuckles to try a full frontal assault. Knuckles ran back into the room, carrying a shrunken master Emerald in his hand.

"So we can use the Chaos Emeralds to transform." Knuckles stated. Tails walked up to Vinny and whispered something in his ear. Vinny nodded.

"Hey, guys? I'm going to be right back, Tails wants to try something. Oh, and I'd be advised to leave the area, and go to the area where Robo did suicide." Vinny said. He then used Chaos Control to warp somewhere with Tails in a flash of emerald green light. Shadow then opened the door, waving his hand in a motion for them to leave. They all ran out, Shadow in the lead, and Amy in the rear.

Eggman's Base

There was a flash of green light, and Vinny and Tails appeared inside the main control room. Tails put the bomb down, and set the timer to 30 seconds. Just then, Eggman came in.

"Oho! It looks like Tails came by to visit! May I offer you tea, or biscuits?" Eggman asked. Tails and Vinny looked at each other.

"Where's Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Oh, I don't know, but ever since he joined me, he forced me to work for him! Now, I want to break free, but I don't know how!" Eggman said. Tails looked down at Eggman, who was lying on the ground, thumb in his mouth, crying like a baby.

"How about we save him now, and throw him off Angel Island?" Tails asked.

"Tails, that's a good idea!" Vinny replied Vinny grabbed Tails, and Eggman. He looked at the bomb. 5 seconds left! Vinny grabbed his purple Emerald, and held it in front of him.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" He yelled as the bomb blew up. They disappeared in a green flash, as the entire castle blew up.

Angel Island, North edge

Shadow turned around. A giant fireball appeared in the distance, where Eggman's castle was. Amy just stared at it, amazed that such a little bomb could do all that. Knuckles got a little worried.

"What if it destroys my house?" Knuckles asked. Shadow just glared at him. There was a bright, emerald green flash in front of them, and Tails and Vinny appeared, alongside...Eggman? Shadow stepped backwards in surprise. Eggman started talking,

"Guys, Sonic has gone out of control. My armies are listening to him now! He has taken over my position, and treats me as a prisoner. He plans to do the one thing that nobody would ever do, not even me!" Eggman said. Tails was surprised by this. Eggman had roboticized people, and tried to kill Sonic on a regular basis. Not to mention take over the world, and rule in the Eggman Empire. If Eggman wouldn't do it...it sent Tails shivers down his spine to even think of it. Knuckles, who had also known about the roboticization, shuddered. Amy and Cream didn't really care, Eggman does lots of things.

"Sonic the Hedgehog plans to destroy every living being except for himself, and you, Amy Rose, and become the great ruler of the Universe! Not just that, but to do it, he will have my robots slaughter every person, one country at a time!" Eggman exclaimed. Amy gasped in terror, and every one else stared at her, a look of terror on their faces. Amy was really upset. If it weren't for her, he wouldn't be so evil, he wouldn't have gone mental...Amy burst into tears, and was welcomed by none other then Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Eggman, Eggman, Eggman. You are a traitor. You told them my evil plan. You know what the punishment is. Death." And with one smooth motion, he flung Eggman off the edge of Angel Island. Sonic grinned.

"I'm back, and better than ever!" Sonic exclaimed. And Sonic took out a rocket launcher, and locked on to Tails.

"Sorry, Tails, but as they say, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer..." Sonic said. Then, everything seemed to go in slow-motion as Sonic pulled the trigger.

Heh, that's the end of chapter 10. I know, last chapter's Robo suicide was...random, but I didn't know what to do. Yeah, and I have to thank my friend for actually saying and doing that in a video game. Actually, most of this is based on video games. See if you can find any examples! For a hint, the resurrection is one. Later!

ShadTikal4ever.


	11. Final Battle, Part 1

Chapter 11

ShadTikal4ever does not own Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Amy, Knuckles, Cream, Rouge, or Shadow. Sega does. However, I do own Vinny.

Summary: Sonic went mental, and is trying to kill his old friends. Knuckles died, but was resurrected, Robo, Eggman's robot, did suicide and died, and Eggman's fortress that was near Knuckles' house was blown up. Now, Sonic threw Eggman off Angel Island, took a rocket launcher out, and fired it at Tails. That was long winded...

Tails was stunned. His body was paralyzed in fear. He was about to be killed by hi ex-hero Sonic the Hedgehog. Tails saw the rocket fly towards him. Tails' eyes widened in fear. He turned his head away and closed his eyes, ready for impact. But it never came. Tails turned his head, and opened his eyes. He gasped. He wasn't hit by the rocket. Cream was. She stood in front of Tails, Her arms outstretched. Blood was pouring down her front. Cream fell backwards, and Tails caught her. He gently laid her down.

"T-t-tails..." Cream said quietly. Tails nodded.

"Yeah?" Tails said, tears coming to his eyes.

"I...I love you...Tails..." Cream said, so quietly Tails could just hear here. Then, her body went limp. Tails allowed the tears to fall. Everyone was angry at Sonic. But no one was madder then Tails. His eyes turned from sapphire blue to blood red.

"You didn't have to kill her...BUT YOU DID! YOU WILL DIE, HERE AND NOW SONIC!" Tails cried, as he disappeared in a flash of ruby red light. Shadow nodded to Knuckles. Knuckles took out the Master Emerald, and started chanting.

"The users are the seven Chaos. The master is the one who unifies the Chaos. Chaos is power. Chaos is strength...USE THE EMERALDS NOW!" Knuckles chanted. Then, the seven Emeralds surrounded Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, and Vinny. There was a bright flash of light. When it died out, five Mobians were standing. Knuckles had turned pink, and became Hyper Knuckles. Shadow's black fur had turned gold, and he became Hyper Shadow. Amy's pink fur turned gold as well, and she was Hyper Amy. Tails had turned into Turbo Tails. Vinny's green fur turned gold as well, with streaks of green in it. He had become Hyper Vinny. The five of them stood ready to fight, while Rouge took Cream back to Knuckles' house, to try and save her.

"Sonic, your reign of evil has gone on far too long!" Turbo Tails shouted. But something unexpected happened. Sonic's fur had turned solid gold as well. But he was no longer Super, or Hyper Sonic. He had transformed into Ultra Sonic.

"CHAOS BOMB!" Turbo Tails yelled. He threw a ball of purple energy at Ultra Sonic. Ultra Sonic laughed. The ball exploded once it made contact with Ultra Sonic. Turbo Tails immediately flew in and started punching and kicking Ultra Sonic. Once the smoke cleared, they could see that not only was Ultra Sonic unscathed, he was dodging every single attack! Shadow and Vinny flew in to help, but to no avail. Ultra Sonic laughed, as he dodged all of their attacks. Ultra Sonic then punched them, and they all were flung backwards. Turbo Tails was unlucky, and he hit a tree.

Back at Knuckles' mostly destroyed house...

"Cream, it's going to be alright!" Rouge said. Cream was lying down on Knuckles' bed, and had her armour taken off. Rouge looked at the armour in surprise. The armour took most of the blast. Cream had only gotten a concussion, and a slash on the chest. Rouge applied bandages to her chest and head. Rouge hurried along to help out Cream, because in truth, she wanted to help fight badly.

"Rouge, where's Tails?" said a voice from Knuckles' room.

Back with Shadow and the others...

"He's too tough!" Hyper Amy exclaimed. They were running low on energy, and Sonic had plenty left. Turbo Tails was panting, and clutching his left arm, which had deep cuts all over it. Hyper Knuckles was in pain on the ground. He was kneed in the stomach in a row. Hyper Knuckles started coughing up blood, and transformed back into Knuckles. Hyper Shadow gasped. They were actually going to lose to the enemy. Shadow sighed, and looked down.

"If only we had Cream, Rouge, and more power..." Shadow said, while Ultra Sonic was laughing in the air 30 feet above him.

Back with Rouge and Cream...

"He's off fighting Ultra Sonic. All five of them are. Hyper Shadow, Hyper Knuckles, Hyper Amy, Hyper Vinny, and Turbo Tails." Rouge said. Cream gasped in horror.

"They'll never win! They need to be Ultra! Sonic already had an advantage, but now that he's a whole form higher..."Cream said. Cream slid of the bed and stood up. Rouge looked at her. She would have told Cream to go back to bed, but Cream looked determined.

"First, let me check the bandages." Rouge said. When she checked the bandages, she gasped in surprise. Her cut was healed, and she didn't have a concussion anymore! Rouge looked at Cream and nodded.

Back with Shadow and the others...

They were losing badly. Knuckles was out like a light, Turbo Tails lost use of his left arm, Hyper Vinny was massaging his back, which was split open by Ultra Sonic. Hyper Amy was knocked out against a tree, and Hyper Shadow was weakening. Shadow groaned. They could never win unless someone could turn Ultra, but only Shadow had done it before, and it caused him so much pain, he couldn't bear to do it again. Ultra Sonic flew down, grinning.

"You guys had enough yet? Or do you all need another beating?" Ultra Sonic cackled. Shadow groaned in pain. He was losing power. Shadow fell to the ground. As he landed, he heard someone call in the distance "Shadow!" and then everything went black.

Back with Cream and Rouge...

"C'mon, Cream! We have to make it in time!" Rouge called from ahead. The two of them were flying, but couldn't seem to go fast enough. In the distance, they saw Hyper Vinny get a roundhouse kick in the back, and Turbo Tails get kicked in the left arm. Cream heard Turbo Tails scream in agony. Tears clouded Cream's vision, but she flew even faster. Then, Cream turned, and saw her friend, Amy, leaning against a tree, unconscious. And not far from here was Hyper Shadow, struggling to remain standing. Rouge bit back tears when she saw Knuckles, close to the Master Emerald, lying down.

"SHADOW!" Cream cried as she saw Shadow fall to the ground, still in Hyper from. Suddenly, Ultra Sonic appeared in front of them.

"Prepare to die like your friends over there!" yelled Ultra Sonic as he charged towards them, gun in hand.

Heh, that's all for chapter 11. Although this is shorter compared to the last few chapters, it's still as good. I actually hadn't planned on even having them transform, but I found that I could fit it into the storyline. Yeah, sorry for this chapter not being as long...but I couldn't find another place to stop. This is, upsettingly the next to last chapter. Next chapter, Shadow will have to count on the help of the others to stop the ultimate evil of Sonic the Hedgehog. And if they fail, they know that everyone else has no hope of survival. Oh, and kai-sempai, I'm trying to write more. Thanx everyone (actually, like 8 people) for reviewing my story! Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	12. Final Battle, Part 2

Chapter 12

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever doesn't own Sonic, Ultra Sonic, Shadow, Hyper Shadow, Amy, Hyper Amy, Tails, Turbo Tails, Knuckles, Hyper Knuckles, Rouge, or Cream. Sega owns them. I do own Vinny and Hyper Vinny.

In the last chapter: Sonic transformed into Ultra Sonic, whilst everyone else except for Rouge, Cream, and Tails went into Hyper form. Tails went into Turbo form. Knuckles and Amy are knocked out, whilst the rest are out of commission. Rouge and Cream are on their way there when Ultra Sonic charges at them with a gun.

Cream and Rouge ran forwards, towards Ultra Sonic. When Ultra Sonic was about to hit them, they flew over him. It only took them a few seconds to get there. Turbo Tails looked up.

"Cream! You're alive!" Turbo yelled. He ran up and gave Cream a one-armed hug. Rouge flew over to Knuckles, and checked his heartbeat. Knuckles suddenly popped up, panting. He looked over at everyone else, and gasped.

"I have to help everyone achieve Hyper mode again!" Knuckles said. Then he remembered something.

"Oh yeah, Hyper mode takes up energy, and the only way you can lose it is if you run out of energy. The only people left who can fight are you, Cream, and Shadow." Knuckles told Rouge. Shadow came to, just in time to see Rouge and Cream go into Hyper mode. Rouge's fur changed from white to gold, whilst Cream's changed from brown to gold with large brown streaks. Hyper Shadow stood up, coughing.

"I must help...let me achieve Ultra mode. I can make it, but it hurts beyond all comparison...please, pass me your powers...everyone..." Shadow gasped. Turbo Tails, Hyper Vinny, Hyper Cream, and Hyper Rouge faced him. Then, they all concentrated hard, and put a hand out, facing Shadow. Their power flew through the air in waves, giving Shadow more and more power. One by one, the four of them fell. Hyper Cream was the last one. She gave all of her energy, but then she turned back into their normal forms, like the others. But Cream kept giving Shadow more and more energy. By the time Cream stopped, Shadow had well passed both Hyper and Ultra. Shadow nodded his thanks, and flew off to meet Ultra Sonic. Once he finally caught him, flying right above the ground, he kicked the top of his head so he crashed into the dirt. Ultra Shadow smirked as Ultra Sonic stood up, spitting dirt out of his mouth.

"Grrrr...who did that? Shadow! You have crossed me for the last time! Prepare to die!" Ultra Sonic yelled. As Ultra Sonic charged at Ultra Shadow, he dodged, and stole the rocket launcher.

"This is for Tails!" Ultra Shadow yelled as he socked Sonic in the stomach.

"This is for Amy!" Ultra Shadow yelled as he kicked Ultra Sonic in the jaw.

"This is for Knuckles!" Ultra Shadow yelled as he elbowed Sonic in the chest.

"This is for Vinny!" Ultra Shadow yelled as he knocked Ultra Sonic to the ground.

"And this, this is for ME!" Ultra Shadow yelled as he locked on to Ultra Sonic with the rocket launcher. He hit the red button, and the missile fired. Then, just before the rocket hit Sonic, Ultra Shadow yelled "CHAOS BIND!" Ultra Sonic tried to move, but he was held in place.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!" Ultra Sonic yelled. Ultra Sonic was then swallowed in a flash of yellow light, and regular Sonic appeared. Sonic screamed, and the rocket hit him. Sonic's mangled, twisted body fell through the air, and landed right next to Cream and Tails. They stared at the body in terror.

"Well, our work here is finally done." Ultra Shadow said as he transformed back into normal Shadow. They then heard groaning as Vinny, Rouge, and Knuckles came over. Vinny grinned at Shadow, whilst Knuckles cheered and Rouge...inspected her nails. Someone moaned over to Shadow's right. Shadow turned to his right, Chaos Emerald in hand.

"Amy! You're ok!" Shadow exclaimed. Amy nodded at Shadow before walking over. Amy then hugged Shadow, and Shadow returned the hug. Tails and Cream smiled at each other. Knuckles smiled at Rouge, but Rouge was still inspecting her nails. Vinny rolled his eyes at Rouge. Knuckles then picked up the Master Emerald, and ran off into the jungle. Vinny picked up the purple Chaos Emerald and pocketed it as a reminder of their journey together. Shadow and Amy let go of each other, and Shadow offered to bring everyone home. Everyone nodded. It had been a very long day.

First, Shadow dropped off Rouge, who lived in Club Rouge, in the center of Station Square. After that, they dropped off Vinny at his house, only to find it destroyed.

"My house!" Vinny cried. And of course, who should be in the center of the house but Eggman, and a pile of scrap metal that had been Robo.

"Oh, all the houses to land in, he has to land in MINE? Come on!" Vinny yelled. After many arguments, he ended up renting an apartment, right next to Shadow's and Amy's. Cream, after talking to her mom, decided to stay with Tails, and Shadow was still living with Amy. But before Vinny, Tails, and Cream could return to their apartments, Shadow turned to Amy, and motioned for everyone to stay there.

Shadow kneeled down, and said, "Amy, over the course of the past two days, I've gotten to know you better, that you're smart, pretty, quick thinking, brave, and I just want to ask you something very important. Will you marry me?" He then opened a tiny box, and inside was a ring, with part of the green Chaos Emerald jutting out of the edge. Amy jumped up and down, Vinny just smiled, Cream stared in astonishment, and Tails was muttering "So that's how it's done..." to himself.

"Shadow the Hedgehog; I would LOVE to marry you!" Amy yelled, pulling him into a tight embrace. Shadow never looked happier.

Epilogue

Shadow and Amy got married a few days afterwards. Tails, Cream, Vinny, Knuckles, and Rouge were all there. After the marriage, Knuckles and Rouge returned to Angel Island, where they buried Sonic. A few years later, Vinny was about to move in to his new house when something fell in the middle of the house, destroying part of it. Inside, Vinny found a brick with a letter tied to it. When Vinny read it, he gasped in horror, yelling "No, no, NOOOO!" He immediately ran to Shadow and Amy's apartment and knocked on the door, his body shaking. He showed them the note, and Amy screamed in terror.

The letter read, 'I'm back!' in blood, and not only was it signed, 'your murderer. Sonic,' it had a picture of Sonic, his cobalt blue fur covered in blood and dirt, and holding six of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Vinny then took the purple Chaos Emerald out of his pocket, and showed it to them in a trembling hand, realizing that Vinny was Target #1.

Well, everyone, thanks for reading! I will continue the story under this name, but it is roughly 4 years later, so characters may have slightly changed. Oh, and sorry, Rouge fans, for making Rouge seem so...out of it, but I either didn't know what Rouge would say or do, or just didn't care. I don't like Rouge much myself. Yeah, anyway, please keep reviewing. And don't forget that I will add in one more character as another Echidna who will appear in chapter 14, more or less, and I will need a name. So if you readers would be so kind as to send in a name through a review, that would be great. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	13. Four Years Later

Chapter 13

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever does not own any of the Sonic characters. Sega does. I do, however, own Vinny.

Summary: Sonic is dead, Shadow and Amy got married, and everyone who helped defeat Sonic got a medal for saving the town, and were considered a hero. But now, 4 years after Sonic died, Vinny received a strange note. Anyone who read it could be told two things: Sonic was back from the dead, and Vinny was his primary target.

It was a beautiful day outside. Light was shining, and a gentle breeze floated through the air. Tails was relaxing at the pool a few blocks away from his temporary apartment. Suddenly, a scream rose through the air, piercing the silence. Tails stood up, and looked around. Surely he had heard that scream before, but who could it be?

"Amy!" Tails cried. Cream immediately climbed out of the pool, and, hand in hand, the two of them ran to Amy's apartment. After running up eight flights of stairs, Tails began to slow down, panting. He walked up the remaining flights alongside Cream. Once they reached the tenth floor, Tails looked around in the hallway. He saw Vinny, holding up a piece of paper, and the purple Chaos Emerald to someone in the room he was facing.

"Tails! Cream! We have a really big emergency here!" Vinny said as he showed Tails the paper. Tails staggered backwards as he read it, whilst Cream fell to her knees, shaking in horror. He looked up and saw Vinny holding up the purple Chaos Emerald. Tails started sweating.

"But Vinny, that means you're his primary victim!" Tails said. Shadow and Amy stepped out into the hallway. Shadow's crimson eyes showed not malice and hate, but fear and worry. Cream suddenly turned cold.

"He may not know Vinny still has the Emerald, so he may either kidnap or harm us to get information!" Cream stuttered. Shadow suddenly gasped. His eyes widened, showing immense fear.

"Guys, if Knuckles and Rouge were on Angel Island where Sonic was buried, then he might've gotten them!" Shadow said. Vinny's hand faltered, allowing the Emerald to slip a little.

"I took this to give me memories of what happened, but I never expected...I never thought this would happen!" Vinny said. Shadow looked down, having to suppress a grin.

"It's like he said when we were on ARK. '_What can I say, I die hard!_'" Shadow said. Suddenly, a blue blur passed right by the hallway window. Amy saw it and gasped.

"Everyone, we need to clear out now! Sonic has found us, and we need to check on Rouge and Knuckles!" Amy exclaimed. Tails started sweating a lot. Vinny held out his Emerald.

"Everyone ready?" he asked. Everyone nodded. "OK then, CHAOS CONTROL!" Vinny yelled. They all disappeared in a flash of emerald green light, just as Sonic ran into the hallway, holding all six of his Emeralds.

"Blast! Now where did they go?" Sonic asked nobody.

On Angel Island...

There was a flash of green light, and they all appeared, right next to a tree. Tails fell backwards, hand over his heart. Everyone turned. Tails raised a shaking hand and pointed to right underneath a tree. There was a knife, and fresh blood on the ground. Right next to it was a pile of uneven earth.

"If I gathered the facts right, then this is where Sonic was buried, and where he wrote the note." Vinny said. Then, they heard rustling, coming from the jungle right near them. Shadow took out his gun, Amy took out her Piko Piko hammer, and Vinny picked up the knife.

"Take one more step and I'll blast your brains out!" Shadow yelled. Then, a young Echidna boy appeared. He was half Shadow's height, and wore gloves similar to those of Knuckles. He had bright orange skin, and had blazing, deep purple eyes. In his eyes were both fear and bravery. Shadow lowered the gun, ashamed. Amy blushed as she put away her hammer, and Vinny slipped the knife into his pocket, scratching the back of his head, grinning.

"Sorry about that, we thought you were...someone else." Tails said. The Echidna boy snorted.

"You mean Sonic? The little retard tried to kill the Guardian and his girlfriend! If it weren't for me, they'd be dead!" The Echidna said. Shadow was amazed. What power could this young Echidna have, that could enable him to save Rouge and Knuckles?

"Do you know where they are? If you could lead us to them, that would be great, thanks." Cream said. The Echidna nodded, and brought them past the Master Emerald shrine, and into Knuckles' house. The roof was missing, and parts of the outside were scorched. Tails and Vinny looked down at their feet, embarrassed. Vinny and Tails had set off a bomb that destroyed Eggman's base, and part of Knuckles' house.

"Hey, Guardian, you have guests! 3 hedgehogs, a fox, and a rabbit!" The Echidna yelled. He then motioned for them to step inside, so they did. Vinny then noticed that the boy's hand was covered in blood. He didn't really want to know how that happened. Knuckles and Rouge walked in, and everyone gasped in surprise.

Knuckles had severe cuts all over his arms and legs, and Rouge had a giant slash mark across her head.

"Guys! Sonic is back, and he tried to kill us, asking about the purple Chaos Emerald! Do you know anything about it?" Rouge asked. Everyone nodded. Vinny then reached into his pocket, and pulled it out. It gleamed in the sunlight. Vinny then fell to his knees.

"I'm so sorry! If I didn't take the Emerald, neither of you would have gotten hurt! I'm sorry!" Vinny cried. Tears started rolling down his cheeks. Rouge knew he didn't mean any harm, and mentally forgave him. Knuckles, however, was a different story.

"You mean that because of you, we were nearly KILLED? GET OUT NOW!" Knuckles roared. Vinny immediately stood up, and ran out of the house, tears falling on the ground. Everyone was taken back by Knuckles. Shadow shook his head. Knuckles owed Vinny his life, and he repays him by making him an open target? Shadow gasped. He then grabbed Knuckles by the scruff of his neck.

"Don't you understand? Vinny is now an open target, and he will be killed by Sonic! You owe him your life, and you repay him by throwing him out? Some friend you are!" Shadow yelled. A scream then echoed from the forest. Shadow glared at Knuckles, and ran off. Cream followed, just to get away from Knuckles.

"Sonic! Get away from me!" Vinny yelled. Sonic merely grinned as he slammed Vinny headfirst into a tree. Vinny groaned, as he felt his head. Blood was leaking out of his head.

"Now, where is the Emerald?" Sonic asked. Vinny shook his head.

"I don't know. I threw it off Angel Island when no one was looking. I think it fell into the ocean." Vinny lied. Sonic clenched his fists, angered. He then rammed his knee into Vinny's gut, and left him to die. Sonic ran off, eager to find the Emerald. Vinny fell to the ground, and blacked out.

Shadow tripped, and fell to the ground, sliding. Shadow then stood up, and brushed his face off. As he looked to see what he tripped over, he gasped. It was Vinny's body, bleeding from the head and the stomach. Cream then caught up with Shadow. Shadow reached over, and picked up Vinny's mangled body.

"Cream, I just hope he lives." Shadow said. Cream looked at the body, taken back. Shadow then took off back to Knuckles' house. Cream then followed, even faster then before. Shadow was hit by branches that stuck out, but he didn't care. A friend's life was on the line. Once they finally got back to Knuckles' house, Shadow barged in.

"ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, KNUCKLEHEAD? VINNY'S DYING, IF HE'S NOT ALREADY DEAD!" Shadow roared. Everyone turned and saw the limp body. Knuckles staggered back, eyes wide open. He didn't know...he didn't want this to happen! Shadow laid Vinny down on the bed. The Echidna then placed two fingers on the back of his neck.

"He has no pulse. He is either dead, or at death's door. There is nothing we can do except bandage him, and hope for the best." he said. Shadow looked down, while Rouge hurried to get the bandages. Everyone else just stood over the bed, watching for any signs of life.

Vinny couldn't open his eyes. He wanted to say he was alive, but his throat wasn't working. He then felt his body seem to fade away.

Tails was upset. His friend, who had always been so nice, was lying in the bed in front of him. Rouge ran in, and bandaged him. Tails noticed that he still had the Chaos Emerald. Tails gasped.

"Shadow, he still has the Chaos Emerald! Maybe, we can rejuvenate him using your Chaos powers!" Tails exclaimed. Shadow nodded, and took the Chaos Emerald. He laid the Emerald on top of Vinny's head.

"CHAOS REVIVE!" Shadow yelled. Vinny's eyes snapped open, and he sat up. Vinny groaned, and held his head. Instead of feeling normal flesh, he felt the bandages. He looked around to see everyone standing at the side of his bed. He then remembered what happened.

"Guys, Sonic did this to me. He smashed my head into a tree, and asked for the Emerald. I lied, saying I threw it off Angel Island, and it fell into the ocean. Sonic then kneed me in the stomach, and I blacked out." Vinny explained. Knuckles then stepped forward.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to get hurt like this." Knuckles said. Vinny just stared at him.

"You do know that if Sonic is on the loose, and he's trying to pick us all off, then it's very unwise for one of us to go out alone." Vinny stated. Knuckles looked down at his feet, ashamed. After that, one by one, they left the room. Soon, only Amy and Vinny were left.

"Hey Amy? How's it going with Shadow?" Vinny asked.

"It's doing pretty well, why do you ask?" Amy asked curiously. This was a random topic, and he'd never said anything about this before.

"Well, it's because I'm not sure if you married Shadow or his robot clone(see Sonic Heroes)." Vinny stated. Amy gave him a funny look.

"What makes you say that?" Amy asked aggressively.

"Well, quite a few reasons, the biggest being the fact that even though Shadow is talking to Tails, there's another Shadow waving in the window behind you." Vinny said. Amy turned around, and gasped in surprise. There was Shadow, waving to her. Amy looked through the doorway, and saw Tails and Shadow talking. Shadow then saw the other Shadow, and walked over to the window, glaring.

"I don't think this will end very well." Vinny said as Shadow pulled out his gun.

Heh, that's all for Chapter 13. Yeah, I still need that name for the Echidna. If anyone could come up with one, please just let me know, thanks. Please read and review. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	14. Shadow's Double

rChapter 14

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever does not own any of the Sonic characters. Sega does. I do, however, own Vinny.

So far in the story: Vinny ran out of the house and got his rear handed to him on a silver platter when he met the believed-to-be-dead Sonic after Knuckles blew up at him. Now, Sonic is searching the ocean depths for a Chaos Emerald. But now, Shadow has seen a second Shadow.

Shadow was marching towards the window where another Shadow was standing. He pulled his gun out, crimson eyes showing hatred beyond all belief. Vinny was lying down on the bed, looking at the two Shadow's. Amy was sitting on the edge of Vinny's bed, and watching Shadow march over.

"Ok, I am very confused right now." Amy stated. The Shadow outside the window jumped through the window, the same hatred showing in his crimson eyes. Both of them were holding guns that were pointed at each other's head. Tails walked in, and stopped abruptly.

"Holy crap, there's two Shadow's?" Tails asked. Amy thought for a second.

"Hey, Tails, can you make a machine that shows who the real Shadow is?" Amy asked. Tails nodded, and left the room. Both Shadows growled at each other. Amy then came up with a plan. She bashed both of them as hard as she could with her Piko Piko hammer. One of the Shadow's fell to the ground, clutching his head, and the other one just stood there.

"I think this Shadow's the real Shadow." Amy said as she walked over to the Shadow who was holding his head. She gasped. He didn't have a wedding ring. Tails chose that precise moment to walk in with his device. He held it up to the Shadow that Amy was next to. Then he walked over to the other Shadow.

"I have some...interesting news. The Shadow that you're next to Amy, is a robot. The other one, well, I'm not actually sure." Tails said. Amy then walked away from the robot Shadow. Vinny just put his hand to his head. Suddenly, the robot Shadow jumped out the window, and ran off. Shadow just stood there. Amy looked at his hand. He did have a wedding ring.

"Hey, um, Tails, when you said you didn't know what this Shadow was, what did you mean?" Amy asked, a look of sincere confusion on her face. Vinny was staring at Shadow, as though trying to examine whether he was a hedgehog or robot.

"Yeah, about that, this Shadow is human, erm, hedgehog, but he has something about him that's robotic." Tails said. Amy started thinking about what all that meant. Shadow sighed.

"I am part robotic, because I was created in a lab, and I was created along the lines of a robot." Shadow said. Vinny simply thought about this for a moment. Amy was just staring off into space. Tails was the only one who actually understood this.

"Yeah...it's getting a little late right now, and I think that we should all go to sleep. We will need our energy if we try to either fight or evade Sonic." Vinny said. Tails nodded, and walked out of the room.

"Vinny, you forgot something. We don't sleep, remember?" Shadow said. (See chapter 8 for details) Vinny sighed. Amy just looked at them, a look of confusion on her face. Vinny fought the urge to laugh, because she looked really weird. Once Amy left, Shadow sighed.

"Already, we are beginning to only care about ourselves..." Shadow said as he looked out the window. Vinny gave Shadow a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?" Vinny asked. Then he remembered how Knuckles reacted.

"Knuckles. He cared so much about his own safety that he threw you out, forgetting the fact that he owes you his life, and that you were easy prey." Shadow pointed out. Vinny looked down. How Knuckles could act so...selfish was beyond reasoning. Shadow's crimson eyes suddenly turned from being filled with hatred to...a little bit of sadness.

"C'mon Shadow, let's go keep watch." Vinny said. Shadow nodded. It seemed like mere seconds after that was said that someone screamed.

"Why is it that people are in danger so much? I wouldn't complain if we had a day off or something..." Vinny said. Shadow nodded. Rouge ran into the room.

"Guys, Sonic kidnapped Knuckles! Sonic left a note saying that he won't return Knuckles until he found the Chaos Emerald in the ocean!" Rouge cried. Only one word went through Shadow's mind at that moment. 'Crap.' he thought. Vinny felt a twinge of guilt. He was the one who told Sonic about the Emerald.

"That tears it! I'm going to kill Sonic, and make sure he dies for good!" Shadow exclaimed. But before he could run forward, Vinny put an arm out to block him.

"No. I was the one who got Knuckles into this mess, so I have to get him out. Besides, I have some unfinished business to attend to..." Vinny said. His sapphire blue eyes, normally showing kindness, showed hate and anger. Vinny tossed the Emerald up, and caught, saying "CHAOS CONTROL!" before either of them could stop him. Rouge went to follow him, but Shadow stopped her.

"This is his business. He needs to be the one to do this." Shadow said. Rouge sighed. She would just never understand men and their pride.

Along the shoreline...somewhere...

"Knuckles, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which will it be?" Sonic asked. There was a bright flash of emerald light, and there stood Vinny. In his hand was the purple Chaos Emerald. Vinny glared at Sonic, who hadn't noticed Vinny's arrival. Vinny then charged at Sonic, and kneed him in the gut. Sonic doubled over, coughing up blood. He then gave Sonic a sharp right uppercut to the jaw. Sonic flew backwards, blood pouring freely from his mouth. Knuckles backed up, scared. He had never seen Vinny like this, and never wished to again.

"Sonic, this time you have gone too far. Attempting murder for no reason, forcing those around you to do your bidding...that's not the old Sonic. And because of those actions, you will never live to see another DAY!" Vinny cried, enraged. He pulled out his Chaos Emerald, and stuck out his right hand.

"CHAOS STRIKE!" Vinny yelled repeatedly. Sonic was continuously hit by bolts of green and purple light. Every time, the attack was stronger. And every time, the amount of hatred in Vinny's eyes increased. He finally stopped after a few minutes. Sonic was lying on the sand. He had cuts everywhere. He broke his jaw, and blood poured freely. Sonic tried to get up, but he couldn't. He lost control of his arms. Vinny smiled. Knuckles staggered backwards. He was scared and surprised beyond all belief. Vinny had lost it.

"Vinny! Stop it now!" Knuckles cried. Vinny turned towards him, the hate and anger radiating from his body dying down. His eyes soon started to calm down. He ran over to Knuckles.

"Are you alright?" Vinny asked. Knuckles merely nodded.

"Good. C'mon, let's go." Vinny said. Sonic groaned from the pain. He had never felt pain like this before. The sand wasn't exactly helping either. His whole body was stinging.

"Sorry Sonic. But you have to suffer for all those you killed, manipulated, and injured." Vinny said coldly. He waved goodbye as he disappeared in a flash of emerald light. Sonic's head then fell to the ground.

On Angel Island...

Shadow was waiting with Rouge when a bright emerald flash filled the room. Once the light cleared, Shadow could see Vinny and Knuckles. Knuckles was sweating deeply, and Vinny seemed to be perfectly fine. No cuts or anything. Shadow was amazed. Who was this mysterious hedgehog?

"Hey, we're back." Vinny said. Knuckles seemed to be...relieved to get away from him. He then ran off, muttering about the Master Emerald. Rouge ran off to follow him.

"What happened? Before, Sonic nearly killed you, but now you're completely unharmed! What happened?" Shadow asked. Vinny got kind of nervous.

"Er, yeah, I, uh..." Vinny trailed off. Shadow got really ticked. He pulled out his gun, and pointed it at Vinny.

"OK, OK! Look, you know how Tails can turn into Turbo Tails if he gets angry enough? I did something similar, only without the dramatic light and wind." Vinny said. Shadow lowered the gun.

"I guess Knuckles got scared, why, he never told me. I think it was because I was fighting a little...aggressively." Vinny said.

"Just tell me what you did to Sonic already!" Shadow exclaimed.

"Look, I beat the stuffing out of him, and he's off dying somewhere along the coastline! Shesh!" Vinny said. Shadow stepped back. 'This guy nearly killed Sonic, and wasn't touched at all? That's crazy!' Shadow thought.

"Look, I punched him a few times, and used around thirty Chaos Strikes. Why it was so effective, I have no idea." Vinny said. Shadow raised an eyebrow. Shadow got the feeling he wasn't getting the full story. Shadow waved to Vinny, and set off to find Knuckles. He found Knuckles talking to Rouge at the Master Emerald shrine. Shadow sat down next to Knuckles.

"-the hatred and anger in his eyes scared me. He was firing Chaos Strikes, but they were green and purple. Sonic was very badly beat up. I called out Vinny's name, and he seemed to calm down." Knuckles said. Shadow gasped. It was almost impossible to change the color of someone's Chaos abilities. The only way that could happen was if someone literally...but it couldn't have happened! Shadow looked back at Knuckles.

"Why was Vinny so mad? Do you know?" Shadow asked. Rouge just looked at him.

"Yeah, he said something about manipulating people and murdering for no reason. Why?" Knuckles asked. Shadow quickly said "Nothing." and ran off. He couldn't believe it. If that was why Vinny got mad, then the legends were right. Vinny, alongside another hedgehog, and someone else, would be able to stop a hero gone bad. Shadow gathered that Vinny, himself, and someone else had to stop Sonic. But little did he know that Sonic had an apprentice, and was planning to use him to spy on them.

Heh, that's chapter 14. I really need more people to send in names. I currently have the names Blaze, Inferno, and kai-senpai was good enough to let me use his echidna's, Redd and Echo. I also have Kyle, from uhyeahitsteamdark. That gives me a total of five, and I'd like a bigger selection, no offence Jayln the Hedgehog, and kai-senpai. Please review. Oh, and those of you who like Vinny, he's in Gahlik the Echidena's 'Sonic and I' story. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	15. The Echidna Spy

Chapter 15

Shadow's Story

ShadTikal4ever does not own any of the Sonic characters. Except for Vinny. I own him.

Summary: Sonic's back, he nearly killed Rouge and Knuckles, but a young Echidna saved them. Not long after that, Vinny was brutally mauled by Sonic. And of course, a second Shadow came and went, and learned about a little of Shadow's history. Sonic then captured Knuckles to search for the Emerald that he thought was in the sea. Vinny then came and nearly killed Sonic. And then Knuckles and Vinny returned.

"Well, isn't this great? Knuckles is scared of Vinny, and now we have another Echidna following us around!" Amy said. Knuckles winced when she mentioned Vinny, proving her point. The Echidna boy frowned.

"I have a name too, you know." he said. Amy looked at him.

"Everyone has a name. What's yours?" Amy asked.

"Blaze. My name is Blaze." Blaze said. Vinny looked at him. Shadow didn't really care. He was still thinking about the legends. Himself, and two others wee supposed to destroy Sonic. But something wasn't right. If he needed two more allies, who could they be?

"Shadow, you OK?" Amy asked. Shadow glanced up, shaken from his thoughts. Shadow nodded. Blaze then walked to the door.

"I'm going to go outside. I need to check on the Master Emerald, make sure it's alright." Blaze said. Knuckles nodded, and Blaze left. Knuckles stood up.

"Hey, wait a minute; I'm the Guardian, not him!" Knuckles stated as he ran out the door. Blaze looked behind him to see Knuckles chasing after him. Blaze grinned.

"So, you want to race, huh? Last one there's a rotten egg!" Blaze called as he sped off towards the jungle. Knuckles sweat dropped.

"The Master Emerald shrine's right there, you know!" Knuckles called after him, pointing at the shrine. Knuckles merely sighed and walked to the shrine. Blaze ran through the jungle until he got to a tree with a door.

"I am here Master, please let me in." Blaze said to the tree. The door opened, and Blaze walked through. Inside, Sonic was resting against a wall, fresh bandages wrapped all over him, most of them stained red. Blaze gasped.

"Master, who did this to you?" Blaze asked.

"It was that green hedgehog...Vinny..." Sonic growled. Blaze ran to Sonic's side.

"Kyle, you were sent to spy on them. How are they?" Sonic asked.

"I learned that they develop friendships and become closer with people once they learn their name, and know them. I lied, and said my name was Blaze." Blaze/Kyle said. Sonic grinned.

"I always knew you were smart, Kyle." Sonic said. Kyle nodded, but froze when he heard someone calling for him. Kyle immediately ran out of the tree, and closed the door. He bolted through the jungle, and ran into Cream. Blaze fell backwards, and Cream fell forwards. Tails arrived just in time to see his girlfriend fall on top of Blaze. Tails ran over, infuriated.

"GET OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!" Tails roared. Blaze wasted no time to get out from under Cream. Blaze looked at Tails. He was generating anger; so much his eyes flashed red. Blaze chose that moment to bolt out of the jungle, and back towards the Emerald shrine. After a few minutes, Blaze leaned against the side of a pillar, panting. A red light exploded from the forest. Blaze looked towards the forest, and saw a red, two-tailed kitsune flew from the trees, carrying Cream in his arms. His red eyes focused on Blaze, who was trying to find a hiding place. Blaze sprinted towards a nearby tree, but Turbo Tails beat him to it.

"Tails, stop! We ran into each other, and we fell!" Cream cried. Turbo Tails put her down, and disappeared in a flash of red light. And when the red light died down, there was Tails, kicking the ground. He looked embarrassed. Blaze, feeling no sympathy or forgiveness, ran off.

"What's his deal?" Tails asked. Cream merely shrugged. Blaze didn't care, as long as he stayed away from them long enough, he wouldn't feel friendship. He decided to spy on the others, who were at Knuckles' house. Blaze swiftly scaled the tree, and was hiding in the mass of green leaves. He saw Rouge applying make-up (as usual), Shadow was talking to Vinny, and Amy was watching T.V. Blaze already knew where the others were. Knuckles was guarding the Master Emerald, and Cream and Tails were probably exploring the jungle, examining trees...Blaze froze, and fell out of the tree. Blaze hit with his leg first, and heard a loud crunching sound. Blaze only needed to take one look to find out what he did. He broke his leg.

"Great, now I can't see if they found Sonic's hideout or not..."Blaze grumbled to himself. Amy ran outside to see what the loud crunch was, and saw Blaze holding his leg, blood flowing freely through his knee, which bent the wrong way.

"BLAZE!" Amy yelled. This got the attention of the others, and in a matter of seconds, everyone was surrounding him. Tails and Cream, however, were missing. Knuckles ran up, breathing heavily.

"Guys, I have something important to tell all of you! It's about Sonic!" Knuckles said. "He has an apprentice!" Knuckles continued. Blaze looked at Knuckles in fear. If they found out he was the apprentice, they would surely kill him. Blaze tried to crawl backwards inconspicuously, but he cried out in pain, ruining it. Amy looked at him, a sign of care in her eyes.

"You will not believe who the apprentice is. He is an orange Echidna, and his name is..."Knuckles started

"OK! OK! I admit it! I am the apprentice! Please let me go!" Blaze yelled. Everyone stared at him, a look of confusion on their faces. Shadow merely smirked.

"You know how obvious you were? Hiding in trees, bushes, talking to Sonic where anyone could hear you, you obviously need to practice stealth. I overheard every word of your talk with Sonic." Shadow said. Blaze's eyes widened, and he backed up. A lone bead of sweat rolled down his face. Knuckles, Tails, and Rouge turned to face him, a look of disgust on their faces. Amy then smiled.

"How about we use him as either bait, or a hostage, and bring Sonic to us! That way, we can defeat Sonic whilst he's injured!" Amy exclaimed. Shadow looked at her, a confused look on his face. Blaze took this as his chance, and tried to escape. He got twenty feet.

"You've failed me for the last time, Kyle the Echidna. You know what the punishment is." said a voice from behind Blaze. Blaze slowly turned his head around, and saw Sonic standing right behind him.

"Mr. Sonic!" Cream yelled. Sonic took out a knife. It had a small handle, but a long, sharp blade. Blaze quivered in fear.

"My real name is Kyle, big deal. I called my self Blaze because once you know each other's names, it seems you develop a bond with them. It drove Sonic insane to break it." Blaze said. Sonic raised the knife above Blaze's head.

"You've told them enough! Now you die!" Sonic yelled in anger. He then plunged the knife down towards Blaze. Blaze shrieked in terror. Rouge then darted forward. Right before the knife struck Blaze, Rouge stuck her arm out. Rouge screamed in pain as the knife pierced her left arm, the cool metal sliding into her arm. Blaze looked on in horror as Rouge fell to the ground. She grasped her arm, and felt the warm blood seeping through. Blaze then crawled away from Sonic, and hid behind Tails. Sonic merely smiled.

"Please, don't let him kill me, I was only doing it because he threatened to kill..." Blaze started.

"That's enough!" Sonic roared.

"HE SAID HE"D KILL THE LEGENDARY SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!" Blaze yelled. Shadow merely rolled his eyes. Shadow looked at Vinny, and nodded.

"Vinny, you and me have to take Sonic out before he harms or manipulates and one else! If you need to get mad, go ahead!" Shadow cried. Knuckles then appeared next to Shadow holding the Master Emerald and six of the Chaos Emeralds.

"How did you get those?" Amy asked.

"I'm the world's best treasure hunter!" Knuckles said. He then placed the Chaos Emeralds next to the Master Emerald, and started chanting. There was a flash of light, and there stood Hyper Vinny and Hyper Shadow. But across from them, stood not Hyper Sonic, not even Ultra Sonic, but something much more fearful. It was Solar Sonic.

"You will never be able to beat me, even if you go Ultra!" Solar Sonic exclaimed. Shadow nodded to Vinny. Vinny thought about all the bad things that Sonic had did, whilst Shadow thought about Maria, and her death. There was a flash of bright sapphire light. When it cleared, Ultra Vinny and Ultra Shadow stood.

"Ok, Vinny, we can win, but we need one more person. The legends say that myself and two others will need to team up to destroy the ultimate evil. Sonic here is the ultimate evil." Shadow explained.

"It mentioned you by _name_? That is really cool!" Vinny exclaimed. Shadow rolled his eyes. Solar Sonic charged without warning, and punched Shadow in the face and kicked Vinny in the chest in the same attack. Both of them were sent flying back, and came up bloody. Solar Sonic laughed as the others ran off into Knuckles' house, Amy carrying Rouge and Knuckles carrying Blaze. Inside the house, Blaze was staring at the fight outside, then at Rouge.

'They were doing all this for me...' Blaze thought. He looked at Rouge, then back at Shadow and Vinny, who were knocked back into trees. Blaze felt anger channeling through his body, and his eyes turned a deep, deep shade of flaming red. He glared at Solar Sonic, before being engulfed by a giant flash of bright purple light.

So, how do you like it? I decided to go with both Blaze, submitted by Jayln the Hedgehog, and Kyle, submitted by uhyeahitsteamdark. Both of you, as well as me, can now put him in our stories. I'm sorry for any of you who's names were not chosen, but I liked these best. So, sorry, kai-senpai. Please review this piece. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	16. The Three Heroes of Legend

Chapter 16

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever does not own any of the Sonic characters, Sega does. I do own Vinny, Ultra Vinny, and myself and two others own Blaze/Kyle.

Summary: Blaze the Echidna was really Kyle the Echidna, who was a spy planted by Sonic. But something unforeseen happened: Sonic exceeded the boundaries of Ultra mode, and turned into Solar Sonic. Now, can Ultra Vinny and Ultra Shadow fend off Solar Sonic alone? Or will they gain another ally, powerful enough to help? Find out in this chapter.

"HAHAHA! Is that really the best you can do?" Solar Sonic taunted. Ultra Vinny and Ultra Shadow were leaning against trees, both of them slowly but steadily dying. Solar Sonic was floating in the air, laughing. Blaze was so angry, he was shaking. His right eye began twitching, worse and worse each time. Solar Sonic then flew towards Vinny, ready to kill him for revenge. He didn't know what made him do it. All Blaze knew was that he couldn't let Vinny die. Blaze flew out of the house, and stopped in front of Vinny. His dreadlocks rose into the air, as his fur changed from orange to a deep, deep, purple. He stuck out his hand. Solar Sonic ran into Blaze's hand, and was stopped.

"What the-? KYLE!" Solar Sonic roared. He glared at Blaze, who smirked. Shadow half-smiled, half smirked. The Echidna traitor turned out to be the third ally after all. With a wave of Blaze's hand, Solar Sonic was thrown into the ground, snapping his arm. Solar Sonic screamed in pain. Blaze was floating in the air, his fur ruffling in the wind. His eyes were no longer the calm purple, but had changed their color to yellow. Ultra Shadow staggered to his feet. Ultra Vinny grinned.

"Hey, Blaze, thanks." Ultra Vinny said. Blaze nodded, and flew off to where Solar Sonic lay, in a puddle of blood. Solar Sonic got up in time to be knocked into the air by Blaze. Ultra Vinny appeared in the air, and knocked Solar Shadow down to the ground. Ultra Shadow jumped up, and elbowed Solar Sonic in the back. Even though Solar Sonic's back had just broken, he grinned.

"What's so funny? Have you simply gone delirious?" Ultra Shadow asked. He knew there had to be a reason that he was laughing, even when he was about to die.

"I have two reasons. The first, I have bomb that will blow up Amy in roughly ten seconds. Secondly, I have a whole factory creating robot Sonics, like myself. You see, with an all powerful army, I will take over the world!" Solar Sonic exclaimed. Shadow gasped. He threw Solar Sonic to the ground, and flew off towards Amy. Once he got there, he found the bomb. It had a few seconds left, and it was on Amy's back. Shadow took off the bomb, and flew towards Solar Sonic.

"Say goodnight, Faker." Ultra Shadow said as he threw Solar Sonic the bomb.

"What's this? Oh, cra..." He never finished his sentence. The bomb blew up right in Solar Sonic's face. A ton of smoke appeared. Blaze was unfazed by the sharp wind coming from the explosion. Almost everyone else was blown away, having to grab onto either a tree or someone else to keep from blowing away. Finally, the smoke cleared. And Ultra Shadow was surprised at what he saw. Sonic was standing, his face covered in cuts and scrapes, and his gloves seemed to be dyed red.

"Just die." Blaze said, as he appeared next Sonic.

"What're you going to do, Kyle? Bore me to death?" Sonic asked. Blaze didn't answer. After a few seconds, Blaze's fur turned back to orange, and his eyes turned back to their basic purple.

"What's the matter? Given up?" Sonic asked. Blaze glared at Sonic, and chuckled.

"No, but I don't need to be really strong to make this painful." Blaze said. He waved good bye, and kicked Sonic, how should I say, 'the spot where the sun don't shine.' Sonic fell over, blood falling from his mouth. He then fell to the ground. Blaze immediately ripped his head clean off.

"Ugh, Blaze, don't you think that's a little...overkill?" Vinny asked, disgusted at the sight. Both he and Shadow had turned back to normal. Blaze looked over at Vinny.

"This isn't overkill. This is checking to see whether he's a robot, or the real deal." Blaze said. He then ripped a few wires out of Sonic's head. Shadow realized something.

"Wait, if there's a factory making these robots, then the Sonic that came back from the grave was really another Sonic!" Shadow exclaimed. Vinny crossed his arms.

"Why does this always happen to us?" Vinny moaned. Shadow rolled his eyes, and Blaze chuckled. Amy and the others then ran up to Shadow, Vinny, and Blaze.

"Shadow! Vinny! How'd you beat Sonic?" Amy asked. Shadow sighed, and told her what they found out. Nothing could hide the surprised, yet scared looks on their faces.

"Vinny, is this true?" Amy asked. Vinny nodded. Everyone looked down.

"This may be the end of the world as we know it..." Cream said quietly. Shadow, Blaze, and Vinny looked up, along with Knuckles and Tails.

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" They all said. They all looked at each other.

"OK, let's never do that again." Vinny said. Shadow nodded, whilst Tails was laughing. Vinny looked into the purple Chaos Emerald in his hand. He then thrust it into the center of the group. Shadow thrust his green Emerald into the center, next to Vinny's. Tails also thrust his white Emerald into the center. Blaze thrust the red one into the center, and Knuckles thrust the yellow one into the center. Amy thrust the orange Emerald into the center, and Cream thrust the black Chaos Emerald into the center.

"From this day forward, we will do our best to fight against Sonic as a team. We shall call ourselves...The Fellowship of the Emeralds!" Tails announced. Everyone sweatdropped.

"By the time you figure out what was wrong with that, it won't matter anymore." Rouge said.

"How about...The Protectors of the Emeralds?" Cream asked. Everyone nodded their approval. Little did they know about the journey that lay ahead, which would contain lethal enemies, new allies, and a lot of fighting.

Yeah, that is Chapter 16. I couldn't really find any other good stopping point, so sorry for the shortness. This is not the end, and I will include a few OC's. That's right, I will put in some of the fan characters. And everybody, thanks for sticking with me so far. Kai-sempai, you can find a bio of Vinny in both chapter 8, or on my profile. And yes, I am a pre-teen boy. And everyone else, thanks for reviewing. But just so you know, the rest of the story will continue about a week after this chapter's events. Heh, that's all. Man, that was long-winded. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	17. A New Ally

Chapter 17

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever does not own any of the Sonic characters. Sega does. However, I do own Vinny, and I share Blaze/Kyle with two other people.

Summary: Blaze fins strength inside himself and becomes Shadow's second ally. They manage to defeat Solar Sonic, but learn a surprising secret. He was one of thousands of robots. They then forged the Protectors of the Emeralds, and vowed to destroy Sonic. A week has passed since that day.

"How did we get ourselves into this mess?" Shadow asked. He, Vinny, and Blaze were all surrounded by around a hundred robots. They were in a broken down alleyway on the outskirts of town. Amy and the others were out watching a movie. The three boys had gone to search for Sonic's base. And they found its security.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Why is it always us that get into these messes?" Vinny asked. Blaze merely shrugged. Shadow had an idea.

"Hey, Vinny, Sonic's going to destroy Amy and the others, and will kill for no reason and manipulate people." Shadow said, winking at Blaze. Blaze realized that this was a lie. A pretty bad one. Vinny got ticked off again, and disappeared in a flash of sapphire light. When the flash disappeared, Vinny's eyes were red, and his fur gold with green streaks through it. Shadow was holding a tub of popcorn.

"Umm, Shadow, where'd you get the popcorn?" Blaze asked.

"Just be quiet, eat, and watch the show." Shadow said gruffly. As they watched and munched on popcorn, Vinny was beating the crud out of all the robots. Within seconds, all of the robots were destroyed, and Vinny had turned back to normal. As Vinny walked up to Shadow, he saw the popcorn.

"LIAR!" Vinny yelled. He then socked Shadow on the head. Blaze laughed, but stopped when Shadow stuffed his gun in his mouth. Shadow was clutching his head. Blaze backed away from the gun.

"I think the base is around here somewhere." Shadow said.

"No, those robots are just here because they feel like it..." Blaze said sarcastically. Shadow glared at him. As Shadow walked, he found a lever on the side of the wall. Shadow pulled it without hesitating. The floor underneath Shadow opened up, and Shadow fell down.

"Shadow!" Blaze cried. Shadow plummeted for what seemed to be forever, until he landed on a comfy mattress. Shadow looked around. He was in a laboratory, full of computers and deactivated robots.

"Shadow! You alright?" Vinny called.

"Yeah, I'm fine! C'mon down, you might want to see this!" Shadow yelled. Blaze and Vinny reluctantly jumped down. Vinny landed right next to Shadow, and Blaze landed _on_ Shadow. Shadow grunted as he fell down, supporting Blaze's weight on his back.

"What did I land on? It feels so...lifelike..."Blaze said. Vinny started roaring with laughter. Blaze gave him a quizzical look.

"You fell on Shadow!" Vinny exclaimed. Blaze looked down. He was on Shadow's back, and Shadow was strumming his fingers on the ground. Blaze stood up.

"Heh, right, sorry about that Shadow." Blaze said. Shadow looked really annoyed. Vinny stopped laughing abruptly.

"Oh dang..." Shadow said. Vinny and Blaze looked at each other, confused looks on their faces.

"Look!" Shadow commanded. He then pointed his finger at one of the computers. On it were Tails, Cream, Rouge, Amy, and Knuckles caught in the middle of a fight against Sonic's robots. Vinny shook his head.

"Jeez, Sonic, give us a break, will ya!" Vinny moaned. Vinny went to climb out of the pit when Shadow stopped him.

"If this truly is their base, then they will return here." Shadow said. Vinny grinned at scratched the back of his head.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but the Calvary's here!" yelled Blaze as he pointed to the dozens of robots that were falling into the lab.

"I will make this short." Shadow said. Vinny and Blaze stepped back. Whenever Shadow makes it short, he also makes it either violent or dangerous. Shadow pulled out the green Chaos Emerald. He then floated up into the air, his body surrounded by a red aura.

"CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow yelled. The red aura expanded into a giant bubble, which covered the entire room. All of the robots were destroyed as the red bubble touched them. Vinny backed up as the red bubble got closer to him.

"Hey, Shadow, anytime now!" Vinny yelled. Shadow then fell back to the ground, and the red bubble disappeared, mere millimeters away from Vinny's face. Vinny sighed in relief.

"That was a little too close for comfort." Blaze said. Shadow groaned as he looked at the monitor.

"Just great. This was a trap set by Sonic. True, most of the robots have been destroyed, but now we lost Amy and the others!" Shadow exclaimed. It was true: all of the computers were destroyed as well.

"Wait a second! If Sonic's been setting up traps, then we must be getting close!" Vinny exclaimed. Right after having said that, they heard screaming from above.

"AMY!" Shadow exclaimed. Shadow took them all and Triangle jumped up and out of the trap. Shadow saw Amy out of the corner of his eye. He turned, and motioned for the others to follow him. They all ran as fast as they could, which was very fast. Blaze couldn't keep up, so Vinny had to hold on to him. After a few minutes, they saw that the robots had taken all of the others, who were unconscious, and were bring them somewhere. Shadow motioned for them to slow down. They stalked the robots for about five minutes. They were about to go into a warehouse when Shadow attacked. He rapidly used Chaos Spears, and destroyed them all.

"Awww, I never get to destroy the robots..." Blaze whined. Shadow threw a dirty look over his shoulder as he ran to help out the others. Shadow and Vinny scooped up everyone, but saw someone else there, too. A female hedgehog was amongst them. She had yellowish, white fur that went into a ponytail. Shadow nodded, and Blaze picked her up. Shadow then preformed Chaos Control, and disappeared in a flash of green light.

Back in Amy's apartment, a few hours later, everyone started to come around. The hedgehog they had found stood up, and looked around. Shadow noticed that she had ruby red eyes, much like his own. She saw Shadow, and smiled.

"Hello Shadow! I guess it was you who saved me! My name is Jayln the Hedgehog." Jayln said. Blaze and Vinny looked at her.

"What're we, snake spit?" Blaze asked. Jayln cocked her head.

"Who're they?" Jayln asked Shadow. Blaze looked ready to kill, and Vinny merely glared.

"That's Vinny and Blaze. Vinny's the hedgehog, and Blaze is the echidna." Shadow explained. Jayln nodded. Vinny sighed.

"Before, we were a group of seven people. Now, it would appear we've grown to a group of nine. This can't be good. We're giving Sonic more ways to hurt us." Vinny said. Shadow looked down and nodded. Blaze felt a little guilty, since he had joined the original seven.

"Sonic? You mean Sonic the hedgehog? I hate him! Shadow's much cooler!" Jayln exclaimed. Shadow cleared his throat, which made Jayln blush. After a few more minutes, everyone else got up.

"Hey, thanks for helping us! What's your name again?" Tails asked. Cream frowned for a second, and then stopped.

"I'm Jayln. And you're most certainty welcome." Jayln said. Shadow raised his hand for silence.

"We bring good news. We have destroyed most of Sonic's troops, and have found Sonic's base." Shadow said, putting his hand down. Tails jumped up and down in happiness. Rouge and Knuckles joined hands and started dancing, forgetting there were both supposed to be the mature ones, and that they hated each other.

"However, there is bad news." Shadow said. Rouge and Knuckles let go of each other, and Tails stopped jumping.

"He will undoubtedly be waiting for us, with more reinforcements. The only thing we can do is fight. We may need more people to help, and we will most definitely need to work as a team." Shadow said. Everyone nodded. Jayln felt happy inside. This would be her chance to make Sonic pay! Just then, a horde of robots came in through the windows and doors, having machine guns instead of arms.

"PLACE YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND DO NOT MOVE OR WE WILL SHOOT. RESISTANCE IS FULTILE." One of the robots said.

"How do we get ourselves into these messes?" Vinny asked no one in particular as a robot pointed a gun at his head.

That was chapter 17. Jayln the Hedgehog, I've put your OC in my story. And when I said there'd need to be more people to help, those people would be OC's. Please send in more, so I can put them in! Oh, and thanks for reviewing. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	18. Robots Strike

Chapter 18

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever does not own any of the characters besides Vinny and Blaze. Sega does. I share Blaze with two other people, and Jayln the Hedgehog owns, well, Jayln the Hedgehog.

Summary: Shadow, Blaze, and Vinny found a trap in the middle of an alleyway. They successfully destroyed it, and rescued their friends. But not only did they learn the whereabouts of Sonic's base, they also made a new ally. Jayln the Hedgehog. But when things couldn't get better, they got worse. Sonic's remaining robots have our heroes surrounded, and will kill at any movement.

The robot moved the gun closer to Vinny's head. Everyone had their hands raised in the air. Jayln was looking for a weak point. Tails was sweating like mad, and Cream was whimpering. Shadow had a look that could kill, and Blaze looked...bored? Amy was ready to grab her Piko Piko hammer in case she needed it. Rouge and Knuckles were looking for a good time to attack. Jayln ran right next to Vinny, and kicked the robot with the gun right next to his head in the back. Then she threw a rock in the middle of the robots. The robots began fighting each other. In a few minutes, the robots were piles of scrap metal, and Shadow had the popcorn out again.

"Shadow, that popcorn hasn't gone stale yet?" Vinny asked. Shadow shook his head, and grabbed a handful of popcorn. Blaze was staring at Jayln, as though he had never seen her before.(which is almost completely accurate.) Jayln looked at Blaze.

"May I help you with something?" Jayln asked politely.

"That was amazing..." Blaze said. Jayln looked at him in disgust. He was drooling on the carpet, oblivious of it. Amy smacked him on the back of the head.

"Legendary hero or not, nobody drools on this carpet!" Amy yelled. Blaze backed away from sheer terror. Jayln looked grateful.

"OK, now that Jayln's saved us all, I think we should tell her about everything.

First, we are the Protectors of the Emeralds. We keep the Emeralds safe from Sonic's clutches. Second, Sonic has tried to kill us numerous times, all of which were stopped. Third, even though Sonic was an old friend, we can't give in to any of his tricks. Fourth, I'm not quite sure how this ties in to anything, but it may help you understand some things. Vinny, Blaze and I are heroes from legend. However, we will need all the help we can get. I think that's all. Anything else?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, there is. Sonic has multiple robots that look exactly like him. The best way to find out the fakes from the real deal is to rip off their heads, and search for wires." Tails added. Jayln shuddered.

"Before we do anything, we must try to destroy anything that could help Sonic." Vinny said. Everyone thought about this for a moment. Shadow finally broke the silence.

"Vinny, Blaze and I will go and find more of Sonic's traps to destroy. The rest of you, stay here." Shadow said. Jayln nodded reluctantly. She really didn't want Shadow to leave. But he did. Shadow and Vinny were looking for levers on the sides of the alleyways, while Blaze was keeping lookout. After a few minutes, Vinny found a lever. He pulled it, and the floor beneath Shadow opened up. Shadow looked down in time to see he was falling. Vinny grinned and scratched the back of his head. As Shadow fell, he realized that in seconds he would be impaled by spikes sticking out of the ground!

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow yelled quickly. He disappeared in a flash of emerald light millimeters from the spikes. He reappeared in the alleyway right next to Vinny. He slugged Vinny in the head.

"Hey, what was that for?" Vinny asked.

"For nearly killing me!" Shadow yelled angrily. Vinny's expression softened up at once. Before he could say anything, Blaze ran up to them.

"More robots are attacking people right outside the alleyway!" Blaze exclaimed."WHAT?" Both Vinny and Shadow yelled at the same time. All three of them ran out into the street to find the robots about to kill a person. Shadow charged forward, and threw Blaze at it. Blaze smashed into it, and went right through the center, destroying it.

"What was that?" Blaze asked Shadow angrily.

"You said you wanted to destroy a robot." Shadow replied. Blaze went to protest but couldn't think of a reply. Shadow smirked. Neither of them noticed what was going on behind them.

"I could use a little help here guys!" Vinny yelled as a robot pierced his shoulder. He felt the cut on his shoulder, and jumped over the robot. As he came down, he outstretched his legs, and pounded the robot into the ground. Shadow saw a ton of robots coming out from alleyways, and sewers to fight Vinny. Shadow ran right next to Vinny, and Blaze did the same. They stood with their backs to each other, forming a triangle. Shadow motioned for them to attack, and so they did. Vinny was rapidly kicking the robots, and throwing them into each other. Shadow blasted them into bits with his Chaos Spear. Blaze was actually biting them until one of the exploded, taking out the rest.

"That was odd..." Blaze said. His fur was black, and he had a few scrapes from the explosion. Blaze then decided to help Vinny, who was having a harder time then Shadow. Shadow finished shortly after that, not even having to fight physically. He joined Vinny, who had scrapes and cuts along his arms.

"Well, it could have been worse." Vinny said. Immediately, it started raining. Shadow's quills fell down, and Blaze's eye was twitching out of annoyance.

"Well, it could have been worse." Vinny said. Not even a second after he said that, lightning struck right next to them.

"Well, it cou-mph" Vinny said. Shadow put his glove over Vinny's mouth. Shadow glared at Vinny.

"Don't say those six words ever again." Shadow said coldly. He removed his glove from Vinny's mouth. Shadow then started walking towards Amy's apartment. Vinny and Blaze followed. They finally got to the apartment building after a several minute walk. Shadow sighed, and began climbing the stairs. After several flights of stairs, they got to the tenth floor. They were all panting. Shadow opened the door to Amy's apartment, and gasped at what was inside. The girls were all drinking tea on the couches, and the boys were staring closely at the T.V. playing video games.

"Why are you just sitting around? You should be trying to find Sonic!" Shadow roared.

"Why should we? You told us to stay here, remember?" Jayln asked. She then held up a tape recorder. They heard "_Vinny, Blaze and I will go and find more of Sonic's traps to destroy. The rest of you, wait here._" in Shadow's voice. Jayln then jumped forward, and decided to help Knuckles, who was losing badly.

"It gets really annoying when we fight robots and then have to walk several blocks in the rain, and ten flights of stairs, and finding people loafing around!" Shadow exclaimed.

"I am offended. Video games are a very complex, strategical system that helps improve your brain." Tails said. Shadow was enraged by this.

"OK, you and me, pal. Let's go!" Shadow roared. He then stole the controller from Knuckles, and started playing. Vinny rolled his eyes, and Blaze laughed. Jayln walked back to the couch, and watched Shadow beat Tails by a long shot. Vinny and Blaze sat down, and watched Shadow take on Tails. A few hours later, they all decided to separate for the night.

"Where's Jayln going to go?" Blaze asked.

"I have my own home." Jayln said. Shadow shook his head.

"With us, we usually stay in groups of two or three." Shadow said. Jayln sighed.

"Who are in what groups, and where?" Jayln asked.

"There's Amy and I in this room, there's Cream and Tails on the eighth floor, Knuckles and Rouge are on the seventh floor, and Vinny and Blaze are on the ninth floor." Shadow explained. Jayln thought about this for a moment.

"I think I'll stay with...Cream and Tails, so I'm not the only girl." Jayln said. Everyone nodded, and everyone but Shadow and Amy left the room.

"Well, tomorrow will be a very interesting day." Shadow said. Amy nodded. Thinking back on the day's events, there was a lot to be accounted for. They found Sonic's base, met Jayln, saved someone, nearly died, got saved by Jayln, and most importantly, no one was injured that badly. A scream was heard from downstairs.

"Why does this seem to happen a lot..." Shadow muttered to himself as he ran down the stairs. H looked inside Vinny's apartment, and no one was there. A floor down, he saw Vinny, Blaze, Cream and Tails were lying on the ground, eyes wide open. Jayln was kneeling beside them. The four of them on the ground were bleeding badly. And Jayln was scared out of her mind, a cut etched across her forehead.

"Shadow, Sonic's robots shot Cream and Tails in the arms when they went to get some water. Vinny and Blaze came down, and they were shot too. I went to help, but was cut across the forehead. The robots left, and they are dying." Jayln said. Shadow looked down at their bodies, and saw Blaze outstretch his hand. Inside was a note.

"Sonic the Hedgehog strikes again..." Shadow said as he read the note.

"Yes I have, yes I have." said a voice from behind Shadow.

Heh, that's chapter 18. I am still accepting OCs. I will try not to have more then one OC from the same person. Please review. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	19. Sonic's Attempt

Chapter 19

Shadow's Life.

ShadTikal4ever only owns Vinny and Blaze. Jayln the Hedgehog owns Jayln. uhyeahitsteamdark and Jayln both own Blaze, as well as me.

Summary: Jayln saved Vinny and the others, and became one of the Protectors. Vinny nearly got Shadow killed inadvertently (accidentally) and they played video games all night. (Or at least the boys did.) However, Vinny, Blaze, Cream, and Tails are dying, and Jayln is the only witness. As if things couldn't get bad enough, Sonic has appeared in person!

"Yes I am, yes I am." said Sonic from right behind Shadow. Shadow froze. He slowly turned around to see Sonic standing right behind him. Shadow saw that there was a window not far behind Sonic.

"Sonic, this isn't a good time!" Shadow exclaimed. Then, without warming, Shadow rammed into Sonic. Sonic merely laughed.

"You'll never beat me like...oh crud." said Sonic as he fell from the window. Sonic hit the ground, and glass fell all around him. Sonic got back up, and shook his fist at Shadow.

"I'll get you for this, Shadow!" Sonic yelled before running off. Shadow picked up Vinny and Blaze, whilst Jayln picked up Cream and Tails. Shadow pulled out the Chaos Emerald.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow yelled, and they all disappeared in an emerald light. They appeared moments later in the hospital.

"The hospital! Shadow, you remember what happened last time, right?" Amy asked Shadow. (See chapters 6-7) Shadow nodded, but ran inside anyway. Jayln followed, and Amy was left running far behind them. This time, no one got in the way of the hospital, so the four of them were admitted quickly. Shadow, Amy, and Jayln were waiting in the waiting room. Shadow was looking down at the floor, Amy was twiddling her thumbs, and Amy was staring forward. After what seemed like an eternity, a doctor then came into the room.

"Amy, Shadow, Jayln, you may visit your friends now." he said. Shadow got out of his seat and started walking down the hallway. Amy jumped out of her seat, squealing with delight. Jayln sweat dropped, and then got out of the seat. She followed Shadow and Amy, clueless as to which room to go into. They eventually went into a room on the far end of the hallway.

"Guys! There you are! I feared the robots might've gotten you too!" Vinny exclaimed as they entered the room.

"If the robots had gotten us, we'd be in the beds right beside you, wouldn't we?" Shadow stated. Vinny grinned and scratched the back of his head, and the others laughed except for Shadow.

"I can't believe it. We were to all stay in groups of two or three for protection, but two groups got injured anyway!" Amy exclaimed. Everyone looked down at Amy's words. Jayln looked down, and had a flashback of the events.

Flashback.

_Tails, Cream, and Jayln were talking. Tails and Cream then decided to go get a drink of water. As they walked out of the room, Jayln remember their room had tap water. As she approached the door to tell them, she heard a scream from outside, as well as gunshots. She opened the door to see robots near Cream and Tails, who were both on the ground. Vinny and Blaze came down the steps. One of the robots aimed a gun. Jayln tried to stop it but it attacked her, cutting open her forehead. She fell to the ground, and heard gunshots. She saw the four of them lying on the ground. Jayln heard footsteps, and the robots fled. Shadow and Amy were standing on the stairs near the four who were shot. _

End Flashback.

Jayln shuddered, but no body noticed. After a few minutes, the sun started to rise.

"Just when I thought I could get some sleep, too!" Blaze complained. Vinny nodded in agreement.

"You don't sleep. Nor do I, remember?" Shadow asked. Vinny nodded. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Look, the point is, we need to find a better security so we don't get injured during the night, like last night." Jayln stated.

"But what could we do?" Cream asked. Everyone thought about this for a moment before Tails said something.

"Maybe we should all sleep in the same apartment, so if something happens to one of us, the rest can help!" Tails exclaimed.

"A good idea, but where would we sleep?" Amy asked.

"We'd have to work that out." Vinny said. Everyone nodded. The doctor chose that moment to come in.

"I'm sorry, but you need to leave now so the patients can rest." the doctor said. After a final wave, Jayln, Shadow, and Amy headed out the door.

"I just realized something. Where were Knuckles and Rouge when all this happened?" Jayln asked. Amy shrugged, and Shadow ignored her. More important matters were at hand.

"It looks like I have an advantage at this point, doesn't it?" said Sonic as he appeared right in front of them. Sonic glared at all of them.

"Sonic. I figured we'd meet again soon." Shadow said. Sonic was then flung forwards, and flew past Shadow into the wall. Shadow looked to see who did that when Knuckles appeared.

"I thought you might want some help." Knuckles said. Shadow turned to face Sonic, but just saw a partly demolished wall. The hospital doors were swinging.

"He's going after the others!" Shadow exclaimed as he rushed to catch him. The others followed closely behind. When they got to the hallway, however, they saw Sonic fly out and smash into the wall. His arm was bent in an odd position, so Shadow guessed he broke it. Sonic staggered forward. Shadow then rushed forward. He looked into the room and saw Vinny holding his Chaos Emerald, and his hand outstretched.

"Ow...you win this round...but I'll be back..." Sonic stuttered. Before Shadow could attack him, he disappeared. Shadow punched the wall in anger.

"He got away again!" roared Shadow.

"No he didn't." Tails said. Shadow glared at Tails. Everyone else looked confused.

"I put a tracking device on him. We can use that to follow him." Tails said. Vinny and Blaze smiled, and Cream hugged Tails.

"One question: where is the device that shows the location of the tracer?" Shadow asked. Tails' grin slid right off his face, and he slapped his forehead. Cream immediately let go.

"Sonic has it." Tails said quietly. Shadow's right eye started twitching. Vinny and Blaze had looks of deep loathing on their faces.

"I'll go get it." Shadow said, and ran clear out of the hospital. He then found the abandoned warehouse a few minutes later. Shadow walked into the abandoned warehouse, only to be met with thousands of robots. Sonic, fully healed, walked into the clearing. He then kneed Shadow in the gut, then picked him up and threw him. Shadow recovered from this quickly, and punched Sonic in the face and kicked him in the ribs. Sonic hit the floor. But as soon as he did, one of the robots came down and restrained Shadow. The robot held his arms out, and locked Shadow's arms in his from behind.

"This will be fun..." Sonic said as he walked over to Shadow. He started punching him in the face. Shadow cried out in pain.

"What's the matter? The Ultimate Life form can't even take a few punches?" Sonic taunted. Shadow glared at Sonic, just before everything went black.

Heh, that's the end of chapter 19. I'm not quite sure why the main points of these chapters seem to be at the beginning and end, but that'll change soon. I hope. Everyone, thanks for reviewing. And please feel free to send in any OC's and I'll put them into my story. I'm trying to only put 1 OC in from each person, but if I have to, I'll do more. Please review. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	20. Showdown with Sonic

Chapter 20

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever only owns Vinny and Blaze. Blaze is also shared with uhyeahitsteamdark and Jayln the Hedgehog. Jayln is owned by Jayln the Hedgehog. Sega owns everyone else, almost.

Summary: Vinny, Blaze, Cream, and Tails were nearly killed by Sonic's robots. Sonic reappeared at the hospital, only to be defeated. Shadow went to take out Sonic, but was attacked, and was knocked out.

Shadow was drifting in space, wondering how he got there. A ghostly figure appeared in front of him. It was Maria. She drifted by, not even saying hi to Shadow. Shadow watched in horror as all of his friends floated by. Shadow gasped in horror. He started falling backwards, and backwards, until...

"AAARRRRRGGGG!" Shadow cried, waking up. Shadow saw that he was in a bed that had pure white sheets. The walls, Shadow noticed, were covered in pictures of him. There were pictures of him at the pool, running around town, and standing still. Shadow sweat dropped.

"Shadow! You're awake!" cried a voice from the doorway. He was into a death hug, and couldn't breathe.

"Need...air..." Shadow gasped. He felt the arms leave his neck. He looked to see who it was who hugged him. He saw a black hedgehog with purple eyes. She was wearing a simple black short sleeve shirt, and long, red pants. She smiled when she saw Shadow give her a confused look.

"Hey, I'm Kai. Kai the Hedgehog. How are you?" Kai asked. Shadow glared at her.

"I've been better consider I was almost killed!" Shadow exclaimed. Kai chuckled.

"No need to get mad. Do you even want to know why you're here?" Kai asked. Shadow's eyes widened. He was about to ask that.

"I see you do. I rescued you from Sonic. I kicked him really hard, and ran off carrying you. I brought you to my house, and put you in my bed." Kai explained.

"So if this is your room, then why are there pictures of me covering the room?" Shadow asked.

"Erm, um..." Kai stuttered. Shadow suppressed a laugh. Kai then looked at Shadow.

"I'm going to call your friends, the Emerald Protector people, and tell them to come over." Kai said.

"How do you know about the Protectors?" Shadow asked. Kai hid a pair of binoculars behind her back.

"I wasn't stalking you..." Kai said. Shadow gave her a weird look. Kai then walked out of the room, leaving behind a very confused Shadow. He heard Kai talking, and a few minutes later, the doorbell rang. As Kai opened the door, Jayln ran in and hugged Kai. Vinny and Blaze stepped in and saw Shadow. Blaze ran over, and Vinny walked.

"Hey Shadow! What happened?" Blaze asked. Shadow told them what happened up until he blacked out.

"No wonder we need more help..." Vinny said. Jayln then saw Shadow.

"Shadsie!" Jayln yelled. Everyone sweat dropped.

"Back off, he's mine!" Kai yelled. Jayln and Kai started fighting in a cloud of smoke.

"Stop fighting! I'm already married!" Shadow exclaimed. Jayln and Kai stopped at once. Jayln was about to punch Kai, and Kai was about to trip Jayln.

"Now that that's taken care of, we need to destroy Sonic! As I proved, no one man can defeat them. We need to work as a team. If everyone's ready, we can take him on now!" Shadow exclaimed. Shadow then warped everyone to outside the warehouse. Shadow, Blaze, and Vinny barreled in. Robots then stepped out of the shadows. Before anyone could attack, Kai and Jayln ran into the warehouse.

"Jayln? Kai? You were our secret weapon..." Blaze said. The girls kept attacking the robots. Kai decapitated seven at a time with a flawless roundhouse kick. Jayln spun them around and threw them into each other. Within a few minutes, all of the robots were destroyed, leaving a flustered looking Sonic in the middle. Both Kai and Jayln charged at him. Kai kicked, and Jayln punched. Sonic ducked before they could hit him, and wound up hitting each other.

"Ow...that hurt..."Kai said. The two of them promptly fainted.

"Jayln, Kai, you've done your part. Now let's do ours!" Rouge exclaimed. Sonic shook his head.

"Why won't you ever understand? You can't win!" Sonic roared. Sonic then jumped up to the top of the warehouse. There was a single pathway near the ceiling. It was very thin, and had no rail on the sides. Sonic landed gracefully in the center.

"How're we going to get up there?" Knuckles asked. Shadow jumped, grabbing Vinny and Blaze by the wrists. They landed roughly on the edge.

"Figures. You're too blockheaded to know you've already LOST!" Sonic exclaimed. Blaze was enraged. He charged at Sonic, who easily dodged it. Blaze then kicked Sonic from behind. Sonic was sent towards Vinny. He gave Sonic an uppercut, and Sonic was knocked skywards. Sonic blew straight through the roof.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow yelled. Sonic was then engulfed by yellow lightning bolts.

"That was too easy..." Shadow muttered to himself. As if on cue, Sonic came back through the roof, curled up into a ball.

"CANNONBALL!" Sonic yelled. Vinny stared in horror. Sonic landed on the far edge of the pathway. He smashed clear through it, and landed on the ground. The pathway then fell, staying attached on the side closest to Shadow. Shadow grabbed onto the edges, and yelled at the others to hold on,

"How do we get ourselves into these messes?" Vinny asked. All three of them were dangling from the edge of the pathway. Beneath them, Kai and Jayln woke up. Kai had an angry look on her face. She charged at Sonic, who had his back to her. She then gave him the most lethal attack she knew.

"KIDNEY SHOT!" Kai yelled as she jabbed her hand into Sonic's kidneys.

"OUCH!" Sonic yelled as he fell to the ground. Rouge flew over and kicked him. Tails then flew up and intercepted Sonic. He elbowed Sonic in the stomach. Sonic cried out in pain as his chest was cut open. As Sonic fell down towards the ground, Knuckles positioned himself right underneath Sonic. He then punched Sonic in the back, his spikes on his gloves driving into Sonic's back. Cream chose this moment to strike.

"CHAO BALL ATTACK!" She cried. She flung her chao like a missile at Sonic. Sonic grunted in pain as he flew over to the side of the warehouse.

"Well guys, I think we have a landing mat." said Shadow. He pointed to Sonic, and then fell off. Shadow heard the air whistling as he fell. He landed on Sonic's stomach. He looked up and saw Blaze and Vinny falling. Blaze landed on Sonic's chest, and Vinny landed on Sonic's legs.

"Well, it would appear we...won very easily!" Cream exclaimed happily. Rouge nodded. Sonic then tried to stand up. He had one hand on his knee, and he was not happy. Amy walked up to Sonic.

"Sonic, you know I don't love you. Go." Amy said coldly. She took out her Piko Piko hammer. Amy steadily raised it above Sonic's head.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt." Amy said. Sonic sighed in relief.

"Much. For me." Amy added. Sonic's eye started twitching. She swung the hammer down, and it smashed straight through Sonic. Sonic fell to the ground, dead by a long shot. Blaze walked over, and examined the inside of Sonic's head.

"We did it. It's over. This was the real Sonic." Blaze said. Cream and Tails were jumping up excitedly, Knuckles grinned, and Rouge smiled a little. Shadow grunted, and Vinny smiled. Kai and Jayln were very happy, but they didn't know the whole story, so they weren't as happy. Blaze however, was probably the happiest of the bunch.

"C'mon guys. Let's go home." Shadow said.

"Don't leave yet, the party's still going on!" said Sonic. He was standing right behind Cream. Although Sonic and plenty of wounds, he was still alive.

"It was a good idea I cloned myself!" Sonic exclaimed. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a long knife.

"This will be fun..." Sonic laughed.

Heh, that's the end of Chapter Twenty. The next chapter is the last chapter. Thanks for letting me use Kai, kai-senpai. Please review this chapter, thanks. Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	21. Parting of Ways

Chapter 21

Shadow's Life

ShadTikal4ever only owns Vinny, and Blaze. Jayln the Hedgehog owns Jayln and Blaze, and uhyeahitsteamdark also owns Blaze. Kai-senpai owns Kai.

Summary: Shadow, after being knocked out by Sonic, finds out a hedgehog by the name of Kai saved him. Now, everyone is going to fight Sonic. When they finally believed that Sonic was gone, he returned.

This is my final chapter.

"Sonic, why must you make things so hard?" Rouge asked. Sonic grinned. He charged forward without warning, and swiped Tails with the blade. Tails tried to jump back, but it was too late.

"Ouch!" Tails cried. He put his hands to his chest, clutching the long slash mark. Sonic charged forward again, and went for Kai. Kai managed to dodge three of Sonic's swipes before kneeing him in the chest, then jump-kicking him in the jaw. Sonic was thrown backwards, but was intercepted by Jayln. She timed a punch perfectly so it knocked Sonic straight down. Cream was trying to bandage Tails's wound when Tails stood up. He flew forward, and hovered above Sonic.

"We were friends. I hoped I didn't have to do this, but I must." Tails said. Tails then flew up to the top of the warehouse. He stood on the top of the warehouse, feet on the ceiling. Tails then thrust himself forward, using his tails to increase his speed.

"FLAMING DIVE BOMB!" Tails yelled just as he caught fire. Sonic tried to get up, but he didn't in time. Tails rammed into his chest, setting Sonic on fire. Sonic fell backwards into the wall. Sonic groaned in pain. His torso was badly injured, and one of his ribs was broken. Tails then collapsed straight to the floor.

"TAILS!" Cream cried as she ran over.

"The more important issue is how he caught fire in the first place..." Knuckles muttered. Sonic then stood up, staggering. Sonic became really angry. Angry at how he couldn't win. Angry at how one attack could nearly kill him. Angry at how no body had joined him. Sonic was then surrounded by a black aura. Blaze ran up and tried to kick Sonic in the neck, but was thrown backwards.

"What...what is that?" Blaze asked.

"I...I don't know...is it...a force field, or...a physical attack repeller? I don't know..." Vinny said quietly. Slowly, Sonic's wounds started to heal.

"If physical attacks don't work, then we'll try Chaos attacks!" Shadow exclaimed as he threw a Chaos Spear at Sonic. It reflected, and hit Shadow. Shadow was thrown backwards, and landed on the ground. Shadow picked himself up. Sonic suddenly emitted a bright light. Everyone closed their eyes and looked away. When the light faded, they could see Solar Sonic. He was completely gold, his quills slicked back in a way similar to that of Shadow's. He was completely uninjured.

"Well guys, you know what this means!" Shadow exclaimed. Blaze and Vinny nodded. Vinny and Shadow were swallowed by a sapphire light, and turned into Ultra Vinny and Ultra Shadow. Blaze was engulfed by a light too, but his was a bright yellow. When it died out, no one recognized him. His fur was a deep purple, his eyes burning red. He had gloves much like Knuckles', and his dreadlocks grew so they were up to his shoulder blades. He had grown around a foot, and he had a streak of orange running across his forehead.

"Woah! What happened to Blaze?" Ultra Shadow exclaimed. Solar Sonic was cowering in fear. A fierce wind blew in the warehouse, and everyone had to brace for impact. It blew everyone away except for the four who were in either Ultra or Solar form.

"I have surpassed that of the Hyper form. I am Ultra Blaze!" he yelled. His voice had grown a lot deeper, and was hardly recognizable.

"Remember Shadow, Blaze and I are just allies. If you die, then it's game over. Got it?" Ultra Vinny asked. Ultra Shadow nodded, and saw Blaze pummeling Solar Sonic. By the time Ultra Blaze stopped, Solar Sonic was a bloody pulp. Ultra Vinny flew forward, and was immediately thrown backwards, but not by Solar Sonic. Ultra Vinny groaned. He still had his shield up.

"I'll take care of his shield." Ultra Shadow said. He then fell to the ground, clutching his heart.

"Shadow!" Ultra Vinny exclaimed. Ultra Shadow turned back into normal Shadow. Shadow was clutching his heart when a silver and gold aura surrounded him. Shadow was lifted into the air, and transformed. He went past Hyper, and then Ultra. He stopped at Solar. His fur was silver and gold, and his quills still had their red streaks. Shadow's eyes were still a crimson red, but they no longer showed hatred.

"What!" Solar Sonic exclaimed. Vinny was watching in amazement.

"No wonder I'm only an ally..." Vinny murmured. Solar Shadow then landed on the ground. He thrust a single hand towards Solar Sonic. His shield broke into little pieces. Solar Sonic froze. Solar Shadow then stuck another hand out, and Solar Sonic was thrown backwards. They heard a cream from outside,

"I got it! Shadow, just keep fighting!" Ultra Vinny exclaimed as he flew out the door. Ultra Blaze charged at Sonic. Solar Sonic gasped for air as he was slugged in the gut. Solar Sonic fell to his knees, screaming in agony. Ultra Blaze nodded at Solar Shadow. Ultra Vinny then flew in.

"Amy screamed because when she saw the light she thought we died or something..." Ultra Vinny said. Solar Shadow rolled his eyes. Ultra Vinny then kicked Solar Sonic in the side, and Solar Sonic fell to the ground again. Solar Sonic was clutching his stomach, and rolling around on the floor. Ultra Vinny started laughing. Solar Sonic put his hands in the air.

"I surrender! Please don't kill me!" Solar Sonic exclaimed. Solar Shadow looked at the others.

"Hands up who believes him." Shadow said. No hands went up.

"Didn't think so." Solar Shadow said. He glared at Solar Sonic, who yelped. Solar Sonic then took out his knife and threw it at Ultra Blaze's chest. Solar Shadow appeared in front of it and kicked it back towards Solar Sonic. Solar Sonic didn't even get a chance to move. The knife pierced his chest, and Solar Sonic fell to the ground, turning back into Sonic in mid-air. Solar Shadow took out the knife, now covered in blood.

"So this is where it all ends..." said Shadow. The warehouse doors flew open, and Amy and the others rushed inside. Amy hugged Shadow, Cream was making sure Tails didn't keel over, and Rouge and Knuckles were staring at each other. Jayln and Kai were smiling, but Blaze wasn't. He was looking at Sonic's body, checking his heartbeat. Blaze smiled. There was none. Blaze then checked Sonic for any wires inside his head, but found none.

"The threat of Sonic the Hedgehog is no more!" Blaze announced. Everyone was happy at this news. Vinny jumped up and punched the air with his fist. Blaze looked pleased. Vinny took out the purple Chaos Emerald, and examined it.

"This was started by the Chaos Emeralds, and Sonic trying to brake free of a friendship." Vinny muttered.

"PARTY AT MY APARTMENT!" Amy yelled. Everyone cheered at this news. After that, they all set of into the city, knowing that this was a night to be remembered.

Epilogue: A few days after the party, Shadow and the others were given medals for saving the Earth. All of them were considered heroes, but Shadow didn't care. All he cared about was that he and Amy were able to stay together forever, without any disruptions. However, all of them remained friends after that, and the Protectors of the Emeralds stayed strong. Blaze lived with Vinny in his apartment, Knuckles and Rouge went back to Angel Island, Shadow and Amy stayed how they were, the others all lived together. Shadow looked up into the night sky and thought to himself, 'Well, this is my life. Always adventurous and dangerous.'

And that is where Shadow's Life ends. Thank you everyone for reading, and for staying with me this far. I will be writing more stories, so keep an eye out for them! Later!

ShadTikal4ever


	22. Shocking Secret

Shadow's Life

Chapter 22

Yeah, another chapter! I'm doing this to celebrate roughly around 2,000 views! Thanks for reading! The disclaimer is the same as the last 21 chapters.

It was a bright, clear day in Station Square. Birds were chirping, cars were driving peacefully, and nobody had a care in the world. Or, at least, none of the humans did. A lone, black hedgehog was leaning against a wall in an abandoned alleyway, observing the sky. It had been a year since he had killed Sonic, yet something about it didn't feel right. As Sonic had told him up at the ARK, "_What can I say? I die hard._" Yet, Sonic seemed to die too easily. Shadow was lost in thought, unaware of the black hedgehog inching towards him.

"SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!" exclaimed Kai, standing right next to Shadow. She was wearing a black tank top and long, black pants. She was Shadow's stalker, and never missed a chance to get a picture, even though Shadow was married.

"Jeez, Kai! I think I just went deaf in my left ear! What's so important?" Shadow asked angrily, his left hand cupping his ear gently. Kai gave Shadow a shocked expression.

"It's been a year since Sonic died! We're having an anniversary, remember?" Kai exclaimed. Shadow suddenly remembered, and groaned. Jayln, Kai, and the King of Annoyance Vinny would be there.

"Yes, I remember...only I wish I hadn't." Shadow groaned. Kai rolled her eyes, getting slightly impatient.

"The party started already! You're the guest of honor...thing! C'mon!" Kai exclaimed. She grabbed Shadow's gloved hand, careful not to touch his ring, and ran forward towards the center of the city. The buildings became blurs, and wind pressed against his face.

"CAR!" Kai exclaimed, and she jumped. Shadow jumped just in time, clearing a Montana minivan that was speeding through the road. Kai pressed onwards, and they journeyed forward. After a few minutes of sprinting, Kai stopped, and Shadow stumbled forward, and looked at the park. Balloons were everywhere; music was playing, often playing either Team Dark's theme, 'This Machine', or Shadow's theme, 'Throw it all Away'. There was a huge cake, next to it big bottles of Coke and Pepsi that were being downed at humongous rates.

"Hey Shadow, hey Kai!" a green hedgehog exclaimed. His familiar black cloak was draped behind him, blowing gently in the wind. His sapphire eyes seemed to shine, and his pink and green shoes glistened in the sun. His green fur seemed brighter then usual, probably due to the sunlight.

"Hey Vinny! Haven't seen you in a while!" Kai exclaimed casually. The two of them shook hands, and Tails walked forward. His tails were slightly spinning, and his baby blue eyes were fixed upon Shadow.

"About time, Shadow! Come on, the dancing's going to start!" Tails exclaimed. Shadow staggered back, sweating.

_'Dancing? I've never danced before...uh oh...'_ Shadow thought. But before he could do anything, he felt someone tugging on his hand, leading him away from the others, and towards the center of the park.

"Blaze...help me..." Shadow said as a familiar, orange echidna made his presence known by walking in casually. Blaze laughed, and pointed at who was leading him. Shadow looked forward to see a blond, almost pearl-white hedgehog leading him forward. She was wearing her usual tank top and pants, her hair in a ponytail.

"Jayln...you can let go now." Shadow said. Jayln turned around, her eyes focused on Shadow. Before she could say anything, Shadow was tackled by a pink blur. Shadow fell to the ground, with Amy on top of him. She hugged him, and helped him up.

"And...let the dancing begin!" said an announcer from the DJ table. Music started playing, and Amy shrieked with excitement, leading Shadow onto the dance floor. Shadow started moving his feet and arms randomly, hoping it looked like he was dancing. Instead, he was doing the Robot.

"Here, I'll guide you." Amy whispered as she wrapped her arms around Shadow's waist. She danced, and moved him as well, so it looked like Shadow was dancing. Before long, everyone was dancing except for Vinny, who was sitting at a table, bored. He was fiddling with his camcorder, testing himself by memorizing the placement of buttons.

"Vinny, what's wrong?" came a voice from above Vinny. He looked up to see Kai looking down at him. Vinny sighed.

"I've never danced before, I never will." Vinny simply said. Kai rolled her eyes impatiently.

"Boys..." she muttered. Vinny looked slightly impatient, and aggravated from Kai's remark.

"Besides, who would I dance with?" Vinny asked slightly rudely. Kai shrugged, before looking back at the dancing hedgehogs, fox, and echidnas.

"Let's see, Jayln, Amy, Rouge, and Cream are dancing. Yup, that's all the girls." Kai said sarcastically, pointing to each of them in turn.

"Exactly. Then there's you, but you were just with Shadow." Vinny replied. Kai gave Vinny an annoyed look, before grabbing him by the hand.

"Okay, you're dancing here and now!" Kai said, dragging Vinny over to the dance floor. Blaze laughed as he saw Vinny trying to break free, but failing horribly. To Vinny's amazing luck, and to Kai's dismay, the music stopped.

"Everyone, we are here to honor the departed Sonic, whom was good, but turned evil." The announcer said. As if on cue, an explosion rocked the park. Amy stumbled and fell, but Shadow caught her, blushing slightly. Blaze was on his back, struggling to get up. A shadow appeared in the smoke, and as the outline became clearer, the figure emerged from the smoke. He had blue fur that shone like a thousand sapphires; jade eyes that glowed magnificently in the day, quills that were slicked back down his head, and grinding shoes on. It was Sonic the Hedgehog, in the flesh.

"Ugh...that was a crazy dream I had...I believed that I went insane, killed Knuckles, and tried to kill you all...man, what a nightmare!" Sonic exclaimed. Vinny looked confused.

"But we killed you! You really did turn evil, and I even saw Shadow, Blaze, and Vinny kill you!" Jayln exclaimed, horrified. Sonic looked dumbfounded.

"What are you talking about? I was in a coma after I saved the ARK from crashing into the Earth, aiding Shadow! I just woke up today!" Sonic exclaimed. Kai and Jayln exchanged glances that clearly said they didn't believe him. Everyone else was stupefied.

"Wait a second! If that wasn't the real you we killed, then who was it that could enter Solar mode?" Vinny asked. Sonic shrugged, and then came up with a conclusion. He reached into his quills, and pulled out a small remote control. A vortex opened up in front of them, blue with white swirls inside. The outside was jagged, and it looked like it was sliced with a knife.

"It may have been a Sonic from a parallel universe, which this vortex leads to. Oh dear, it would appear we do have a problem..." Sonic started when people started popping out of the vortex, covered in shadows. Three of them jumped out. One of them had burning crimson eyes that burned with the fires of a thousand evils. The second one had dreadlocks, as well as deep purple eyes that showed pure malice. The third one had cold, sapphire eyes that flicked from person to person. The three of them disappeared as quickly as they came; only they moved out into the city. Sonic tried to close the vortex, and succeeded, but a fourth figure flew out. Wings extended, it flew over towards the central part of town.

"Okay, so now an evil Shadow and three others are running amuck in the city. I think we should do something." Blaze said. Sonic looked over and saw Blaze.

"Kyle, I haven't seen you in a while, ever since you transferred from our world to the other!" Sonic exclaimed. There was a huge explosion, and a skyscraper fell down in the city. Shadow glanced over his shoulder and saw people running away from the city, and sighed.

"Here we go again." Vinny said as they ran towards the city. Smoke was now rising, and sirens were going off left and right. They decided to split into equal groups. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles ran off to the west side of town, Shadow, Blaze, and Jayln to the north, Vinny, Cream, and Kai to the east, and Amy, Rouge, and Gahlik, whom they had just ran into, to the south. After the group split up, the four shadowed figures met in the center of town. Shadow was holding the green Chaos Emerald in his hand, smirking. Rouge, whose brown eyes showed nothing but evil, was holding a special set of spy weapons. The two others remained in the shadows, but the one with sapphire eyes took out a duplicate of the purple Emerald, and the one with purple eyes punched the air quickly and violently.

"Man...how do we know which Shadow is which?" Vinny asked. Cream shrugged, and Kai didn't respond. Another explosion rocked the city, and Kai had to jump, otherwise she would have been squashed by a building. Smoke rose, and they started coughing. A figure appeared in the smoke, something glinting in his hand.

"CHAOS STRIKE!" he yelled, and several bolts of lightning smote Vinny in the chest, the bolts green. Vinny fell backwards to the ground, and looked in horror as the figure revealed itself.

"It's...me." Vinny said as another Vinny stepped out of the shadows, the duplicate Emerald in his hand. Cream looked scared as she saw the menacing look in his eyes, and Kai was greatly surprised. Vinny drew out his own purple Chaos Emerald, and they stood looking at each other, searching for a weakness, or an opening.

Amy, Rouge, and Gahlik were bored out of their minds. So far, the whole south part of the city had been searched twice. They were sitting on top of a skyscraper, examining the view. They saw an explosion from the east side, and when they saw a Chaos Strike, Gahlik knew that they were successful. Gahlik looked down, and his head peering over the edge of the building. He jerked his head up, just as two sharp shurikan flew along the edge of the building.

"That was way too close..." Gahlik said, shocked. Another explosion rocked the building, sending the three of them falling from the building. Gahlik grabbed onto a flagpole that stuck out of the building, and Rouge caught Amy and slowly flew down to the ground.

"Hey, that flagpole thing actually works!" Gahlik exclaimed, just before the flagpole fell off of the building. Gahlik was caught by Rouge, and brought back to the top of the building. Her brown eyes quickly scanned him, and he felt awkward. Gahlik realized something with a jolt.

_'Rouge doesn't have brown eyes!'_ Gahlik realized a second too late. The Rouge that was right next to him grinned, and grabbed him by the neck. Gahlik punched Rouge's arm, but to no avail. She threw Gahlik off of the other side of the building, and with nothing to grab on to, he was surely doomed.

I have no idea what to say here other then 'Please review', so I guess I won't say anything. Later!

ShadTikal4ever (I may change my name to PyroShadow or something soon...)


	23. The Battle Under the Stars

Shadow's Life

Chapter 23

_My life is really weird ever since I fell from Space Colony ARK. It was two years ago that I was ready to sacrifice my life to save Sonic the Hedgehog, the girl named Amy, and all those who inhabit Earth. I survived, and I now live with Amy. I've met and allied Vinny, an annoying green hedgehog, Kai, a black hedgehog who stalks me without my knowing, Jayln, a whitish-blondish hedgehog that seems to be obsessed with me, and Blaze, a orange Echidna who is completely unpredictable. Not to mention Gahlik, a black Echidna who practices voodoo, and is exceedingly weird. Now, evil clones of me, Rouge, Vinny, and either Knuckles or Blaze are running amuck, and we have to stop them. However, we may not survive..._

_Shadow's thoughts._

For the disclaimer, just read chapters 1-21, thanks.

"Houston, we have a problem. Spaceship Alpha's boosters are broken, and I'm falling from a dangerous height. I need backup, a bacon-cheese sandwich, and SOMEONE TO HELP ME!" Gahlik exclaimed as he was thrown over the edge of the skyscraper by Rouge's clone.

"Wait...since when has Station Square had skyscrapers? This wasn't here yesterday..." Gahlik thought out loud. He looked down to see that he was still a decent height over the ground, which was approaching fast. Gahlik gulped, and looked around to find a way out of this mess.

"Wow, this is boring." Shadow thought. He was lounging on a chair in his apartment, bored. He was leaning on the back two legs of the chair, bored. He was using the Chaos Emerald to project an overview of the city on the T.V. It was to zoom in if it found one of the evil clones anywhere in his sector. Blaze had his head in his hand, his elbow up on the table. Jayln was watching the projection as though it were a movie about Shadow doing some heroic stuff.

"This is almost as fun as the time I was forced to watch a 'Power Rangers SPD' marathon that went on...for SIX DAYS!" Blaze exclaimed sarcastically, except for the last part. Shadow gave Blaze a surprised look.

"They actually let a show that really sucks like that one have a six day marathon? Who could have forced you into that?" Shadow asked. Blaze's jaw dropped.

"You did!" Blaze exclaimed. Shadow rolled his eyes. Jayln gasped. Blaze's elbow slipped and he banged his jaw against the table. Shadow fell backwards, still seated on the chair. Jayln grinned sheepishly.

"Evil clone, right next to the City Hall." Jayln said. The projection zoomed in thirty-fold, and they saw explosion after explosion. A flash of emerald light illuminated the room, and they disappeared.

A millisecond later, they reappeared in front of the City Hall. It took but a second for them to locate the evil clone as it jumped right in front of them. His red eyes gleamed in the moonlight. Shadow charged at him, and was thrown back by a Chaos Shield. Blaze attempted to cause a distraction for Jayln, but the evil clone grabbed him by the legs, swung him, and was thrown into Jayln, and they fell in a heap in front of the building.

"Who is this guy? And how can he use moves Shadow can't?" Blaze asked, and exclaimed simultaneously.

"I'm Shadow's evil twin, Shadow2, and I was banished to the other world...place...thing. And now I'm back, with a quote I ripped off Hyperboy. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!" Shadow2 exclaimed.

Meanwhile, Team Sonic was lounging around in an abandoned arcade. Sonic and Knuckles were playing ­Sonic the Fighters while Tails studied the door, bored out of his young mind. Knuckles was losing badly, and Sonic was gloating.

"Go Sonic, go Sonic, go Sonic, go Sonic, go Sonic..." Sonic repeated for about ten seconds before Knuckles punched him through the doorway, hitting Tails. The two of them flew through the door, and landed outside. Knuckles looked over from the game, and his hands flew up to his eyes.

"OH GOSH MY EYE!" Knuckles exclaimed, falling backwards. Sonic stood up, separating his mouth from Tails, and imitated barfing. Tails really did barf.

"If we don't get a copy soon, I think I'm gonna kill you, Knuckles, for doing that." Tails said, head in a not-so-empty garbage bin. Sonic agreed, and Knuckles was suddenly sent forwards. Behind him, clearly visible in the moonlight, was another Knuckles, identical in appearance, standing right behind him.

"INCOMI-mph..." Knuckles started, but managed to knock Tails out of the garbage back, and hit his mouth. Tails fell out, and fell backwards, where Knuckles was laying, back on the ground.

"Oh no, not again..." Tails said before he landed on top of Knuckles. Their lips met, and Sonic cupped his hands over his mouth and turned around. Knuckles pushed Tails off of him, and Tails landed in the not-so-empty garbage bin.

"Ugh, my own puke! Hang on, I'm adding...more..." Tails said, before filling up the garbage bin. Both of the Knuckles shuddered, and turned around.

"I bet the others are doing better..." Sonic said, before adding a fifth layer of green stuff to the originally white cement.

"I bet Sonic's doing better...which he should be doing worse!" Gahlik exclaimed. Some old lady had put out her laundry on a clothesline beneath him, and he conveniently landed in some man's pants. He was not even a floor above the ground, and he was sweating. Gahlik sighed with relief, before the pants flipped over, and he was shot, face-first, at the ground. He landed with a 'thud', and stood up.

"Ow...pain...pain...I'm taking it out on Sonic later..." Gahlik said as he stood up, a hand to his bleeding nose.

"Stop...using...the...Chaos...Shield...wimp!" Kai exclaimed, kicking at the evil Vinny between words. He kept using Chaos Shield, nullifying her attacks. Cream was carrying good Vinny in the sky, and was repeatedly dive bombing evil Vinny, and then Vinny would perform a scissor kick. Finally, Cream let go, and good Vinny landed cat-like next to Kai. Evil Vinny lowered his shield before speaking.

"I'm afraid I can't do that...My orders were to destroy you." Evil Vinny replied in a voice that was cold, dark, deep, slightly echoey, and was worse then fingernails scraping a chalkboard.

"We can't stop yet..." Vinny said. He lunged forward, and pushed evil Vinny to the ground. Evil Vinny kicked forward, and launched good Vinny over his head.

"How do we know which is which?" Cream asked, her head moving from Vinny to Vinny. Kai placed a hand on her shoulder, and she stopped.

"I'll know...they have a different skeleton structure...and evil Vinny actually has a _brain_, for starters." Kai said as her right eye turned into a golden yellow, enabling her x-ray vision. Cream laughed, but ducked as one of the Vinny's was thrown back at her. Vinny groaned as he slammed into the fence, and fell to the floor. The second Vinny stepped forward, and Kai stopped him. She jump-kicked him in the jaw, knocking him backwards. He hit the ground, and bounced slightly. He lay on the ground, motionless. Satisfied, Kai turned around to help the Vinny who had been knocked into the wall up when something grabbed her ankle. She looked down, and saw the other Vinny's outstretched hand grabbing her ankle. She kicked him in the arm, and freed her ankle. (If you think this is confusing to read, it's even more confusing to _write_. Author's note) Kai walked over, and helped the Vinny who hit the wall stand up. She had to support him so he could stand, his leg was badly injured. Her eye turned golden for a brief second, as if to make a check, and then turned back to normal. She nodded to Cream, who was carrying the temporarily subdued Vinny, and they took off.

"Wow, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Knowing Gahlik, he's probably messing around with voodoo dolls...Team Sonic's probably playing video games...again...but I wonder what Shadow's doing..." Kai said, bounding through the streets. She stopped near an abandoned arcade where Sonic had his back to them, puking, Tails was puking into an overflowing garbage bin while flying above it, and the two Knuckles were beating the crap out of each other by smacking each other in the right cheek in turns. Kai sweatdropped rather conspicuously, and Vinny rolled his eyes.

Sonic started jumping around and screaming in pain, as though thousands of needles were stabbing him.

"I knew it..." Kai said. Vinny nodded, and Cream finally caught up with them. The two Knuckles were still slapping each other, but Tails managed to regain control of his stomach.

"This'll be a weird, long night." Vinny said. Kai nodded, and Cream started practicing mid-air dodging maneuvers. There was a huge explosion, and a small black dot rose into the air. It came closer and closer until it smashed into Cream. By that time, they recognized it at Blaze, who was exceedingly nervous.

"Guys, a fifth figure...person...thing came out of the portal, and it's really tough! Oh, and Shadow2's outing up a strong fight, we can't even attack him!" Blaze exclaimed frantically.

"I stick to my words. This'll be a long, weird night." Vinny said as they bolted off towards the south sector of town.

And now Chapter 23 comes to a close, with questions at hand. Who is the new figure? Why can't Shadow, Jayln, or Blaze hit Shadow2? Why are Knuckles and his clone still slapping each other? And more importantly, when will Sonic stop barfing? All these questions can be answered in the next chapter of Shadow's Life. Except for the one with Sonic. He ate a lot beforehand. Later!

Pyro Hedgehog4ever


	24. Newest Enemy

Shadow's Life

Chapter 24

Sonic: Okay, let's see if I have this right... Vinny and Blaze are pwned by Pyro Hedgehog4ever...Kai is owned by BHE...Jayln is owned by Sil...everyone else is owned by Sega and/or Sonic Team...

Knux: Yeah, that's right...for once.

Vinny: C'mon, let's get this show on the road! Oh, and sorry about the lack of updates... my master managed to get banned due to his songfic! Smooth move, man! Yeah, let's get this show on the road already!

Shadow: Finally...

Charmy: Oh yeah! Time to rock and roll!

Shadow: Get...the...hell...away...from...me...

_No way! Not only is my clone more powerful then me, his ally makes things five times worse! The only chance we have against this guy is to team up, and if I say that, then I MUST be desperate! Please, Team Sonic,(Sonic, Tails, Knucklehead) Team Rose, (Amy, Cream, someone else...) the rest of Team Dark,(Rouge, Jayln) Team Chaos (Vinny, Kai, Gahlik, and I guess Blaze too...) we need you!_

_Shadow's thoughts as he fights for his life..._

"You can't touch this..." Shadow2 sang as he dodged every single one of Shadow's and Jayln's attacks. Shadow2 grabbed Shadow's wrist, and spun him around. He then jumped over Jayln's low slide-tackle and landed on her, bounding her into the ground.

"C'mon _ladies_, you're going to have to do better then that!" Shadow2 exclaimed, laughing.

"Well excuse me, Princess, for not being here to help!" Kai exclaimed, making Vinny laugh. Vinny, Kai, an unconscious Cream draped over Tails' shoulder, Knuckles, Gahlik, Amy, two Rouges, a second Knuckles, a second Vinny, and Sonic were standing right behind Shadow2.

"Woah, man! I need my manly space!" Shadow2 exclaimed.

"What are you, a man?" Gahlik asked. Shadow2's jaw dropped.

"Hell yeah!" Shadow2 exclaimed, pointing out the fact that the fact that he had no clothes on yet wasn't embarrassed meaning that he was a guy...or a stripping female, whatever.

"Pffft, sure fooled me." Vinny said. Shadow2 was enraged by this. Vinny smirked, and Shadow2 lunged for him.

"Sonic Overdrive!" Sonic exclaimed. Knuckles started swing Tails around in a circle, who was holding onto Sonic's ankles. Knuckles threw them into the air, and Tails kicked Sonic, who starting bouncing all over the place, before landing neatly in front of Shadow2.

"What...the...hell...was that supposed to do?" Shadow2 asked, not affected by the attack.

"We need Solar mode!" Tails exclaimed, dropping Cream. Vinny put a boombox onto the ground, and the main theme from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle started playing.

"Hey, we need some good music!" Vinny exclaimed. Everyone just looked at him. Vinny stared at them back. Sighing, while shaking his head with his eyes closed, Shadow held up the green Chaos Emerald. Vinny pulled out the purple Chaos Emerald, while Sonic pulled out the light blue. Blaze held up the orange Emerald, and Jayln held up the silver Emerald. Kai took out the black Emerald, and Gahlik held up the dark blue Chaos Emerald. (I believe those are the correct colors, so don't go hyper critical if they aren't, thanks)

"Heh heh...its go time!" Sonic exclaimed, before the Chaos Emeralds starting circling. There was a great big flash, as bright silver light erupted around Shadow and Sonic. Vinny, Blaze, Amy, Knuckles, and Tails were lifted up. The light died down, and a red Sonic with spiked quills and a red aura landed on the ground, grinning. Solar Shadow appeared as well, and he looked the exact same as the last showdown. Vinny was Hyper Vinny, with solid gold fur, with green streaks running across the top of his head, and his quills. Tails had turned pure red, and was Turbo Tails. Knuckles was a bright hot pink, and was Hyper Knuckles. Blaze was surrounded by fire, his fur burning red. His eyes seemed to have a fire inside of them, and his spiked gloves seemed to grow, and longer, pointier spikes shot out of the gloves.

"Shoot...Solar Shadow looks HOT!" Amy exclaimed, as she was engulfed in a wimpy light. The light died down, and there was no physical change done to her. Or, at least, except for one major thing...

"My hammer!" Amy exclaimed. Her hammer had grown long daggers on each side of the strong mallet, and was lighter. Not only that, but the ends had reinforced titanium, so it packed one heck of a punch. Solar Shadow, Solar Sonic, Hyper Vinny, Hyper Knuckles, Turbo Tails. And Hyper Hammer Amy stood ready for battle.

"I'll help too!" Jayln exclaimed, stepping forward. Sonic felt awe and surprise.

"Jayln..." Sonic said in awe. Kai stepped forward, placing a hand on her chest.

"Count me in too." Kai said, cracking her knuckles.

"Kai...all right, let's show that creep the SUPER POWER of TEAMWORK!" Sonic exclaimed. Everyone sweatdropped, and Vinny did an anime fall.

"Sonic...that was gay. Shut up." Shadow said, shaking his head, eyes closed.

"Well, excuse ME for trying to teach the readers a lesson!" Sonic exclaimed angrily and defensively.

"Readers?" Kai asked, raising her left eyebrow. Vinny and Kai exchanged confused looks, and Blaze, Jayln, and Shadow had a 'What the hell are you talking about?' look on their faces.

"Sonic, did you take your pills this morning?" Gahlik asked.

"Maybe..." Sonic said in a drawl. Shadow2, one of the two Knuckles, a Rouge, and then the now-conscious-and-ready-to-fight Vinny clone. Vinny's clone's sapphire eyes turned a blood red, as did Knuckles' clone, and Rouge's clone.

"Yeah! Let's rock and roll!" exclaimed Charmy from somewhere. Sure enough, everyone charged forward, prepared for battle.

"Kai! Get down!" Jayln exclaimed as Vinny's clone (Let's call him...not Vinny2...VinnyX? Nooo...Vinny2 it is!) aimed a roundhouse kick at her face. Kai slide-tackled him from below, knocking his legs out from underneath him. Hyper Vinny charged at Vinny2, and looked at Kai. They nodded, and tried out a tag-team move. Hyper Vinny used a quick Chaos Control, and Kai disappeared. Hyper Vinny took his chance, and pounded Vinny2 in the stomach as hard as he could.

"That's for earlier, Faker." Hyper Vinny said, before pointing upwards. Kai was in the air a few dozen feet above Vinny2, and was approaching fast. She fell, and kicked Vinny2 as hard as she could as she fell. Hyper Vinny used Chaos Control once more, which brought Kai to safety.

Shadow and Sonic took on Shadow2 in their Solar forms. So far, Shadow2 was fighting for his life, while Solar Shadow and Solar Sonic were simply punching at kicking rather lightly.

"This has got to be the easiest fight I've ever been in." Solar Sonic said, before spinning Shadow2 around, and then throwing him into Rouge's clone. However, Shadow2 had an ace up his sleeve. A hell of an ace.

"Shoot...looks like I'm going to have to bring in the big guns..." Shadow2 said, blood pouring from numerous gashes and wounds on his body. Shadow2 took a walkie-talkie out from his quills, and spoke into it.

"Mechanical Monster, we need your help pronto!" Shadow2 exclaimed. Solar Shadow froze.

"Mechanical...monster?" Solar Shadow asked.

Knuckles' Clone...

Due to the fact that Solar Sonic and Solar Shadow were fighting Shadow2, Rouge, Hyper Knuckles, Turbo Tails, and Jayln were fighting Knuckles' clone. Knuckles and Knuckles2 (The clone) were fighting ferociously, evenly matched. Every time Knuckles gave Knuckles2 a right hook, Knuckles2 responded with his own right hook. And the scary thing was that they were so evenly matched, so equal, they launched their attacks at the same time.

"Wow...that's pretty creepy..." Jayln said. Hyper Knuckles grabbed Turbo Tails by the ankles, and starting swinging him around.

"Jayln, Rouge! Grab on!" Turbo Tails exclaimed. Rouge decided to keep on hand on the top of Hyper Knuckles' head to keep him balanced, and Jayln jumped up, and Turbo Tails grabbed her ankles.

"So, since this is similar to 'Sonic Overdrive' only there's no Sonic, but Rouge and Jayln are here...what should we call it?" Turbo Tails asked.

"Tails! Quit acting like a little kid and just get ready!" Hyper Knuckles exclaimed, before spinning around as fast as he possibly could. Rouge kept him balanced, so Hyper Knuckles was able to spin even faster. Finally, Turbo Tails felt his legs become freed, and Turbo Tails was thrown forward. Turbo Tails kicked Jayln as hard as he could, but hoped it didn't hurt her. Jayln started bouncing frantically all over the place, and hit Knuckles2 so much that every time he was knocked airborne, he was immediately flung into walls, and then back.

"The pain...the freakin' pain..." Knuckles2 groaned. Jayln and Turbo Tails high-fived each other as Knuckles2 collapsed to the ground.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Hyper Knuckles asked. Knuckles2 groaned, and knew that unless Mechanical Monster, built by the Sonic from his world before he died, got here soon, they would lose. Suddenly, the ground started shaking, windows shattered, and everything started rattling. Turbo Tails started looking around frantically.

"Mechanical Monster...he's here!" Knuckles2 exclaimed. Hyper Knuckles looked into the distance, and saw a robot he had never wished to see again.

Cliffhanged yet again! Woo hoo! Yeah, anyway...sorry for teh shortness, but I wanted to leaveness the chapter here. Don't ask why I'm addingness the term 'ness' to someness of my words, a cartoon from a sprite comicness does it, and I think it's cool, personally. Laterness!

Pyro Hedgehog4ever


	25. Fight to the Finish,Beginning of the End

Shadow's Life

Chapter 25

Okay, this caused some confusion to others. Everyone knows how in the epic battle in Chapter 21 when Sonic was killed, right? Yeah, that was Evil Sonic, or Sonic2. The real Sonic, y'know, the one from...well...the good Sonic from Shadow's dimension, Amy's dimension...you know what I mean! He's the one that's alive, and in Solar mode at the moment. Right, as for the disclaimer...I own Vinny, Shadow T Hedgehog owns Gahlik, BHE owns Kai, and then Sil owns Jayln. Everyone else is owned by SEGA and Sonic Team. Oh, uhyeahitsteamdark, Sil, and myself own Blaze, just for the record.

_Mechanical Monster? What kind of name is that? Whatever...it must be important if Shadow2 is calling for it...wait...how'd Mechanical Monster get here if only the five of them passed through the portal? And will we recognize him?_

_Shadow's thoughts..._

Shadow2 slammed into the side of a brick building, groaning in pain. Ash rose into the air as the wall crumbled, and Shadow2 fell to the ground. A loud vibration filled the air, shaking the ground. It knocked Solar Shadow and Solar Sonic from their feet, and shook up Shadow2.

"Wha...what is that thing!" Solar Sonic exclaimed. Another tremor rocked the area, prying loose bricks from buildings. More ash rose, creating a slowly yet rising smoke screen. Another tremor shook the pavement so violently, it started tearing it apart.

"Earthquake!" Solar Shadow exclaimed, as a long, narrow crack started running along the road, shaking everything violently. It started heading right for Solar Shadow and Solar Sonic, who stood hovering in mid-air. More smoke arose, blanketing the air. Everyone started coughing violently as the ash flew down their throats. Another tremor, this one stronger then the last shook the entire area, cracking the pavement.

"Yes...yes!" Shadow2 exclaimed, a look of happiness on his face. However, he was oblivious to the large chunk of brick that had just fallen from the building. It fell silently, and smashed into the ground, taking Shadow2 with it. Turbo Tails, Hyper Knuckles, and Jayln came over.

"Sonic! What's happening?" Turbo Tails asked in a slightly frightened voice. Now, the smoke screen started to dissipate, and they saw who their attacker was.

"Son of a gun..." Vinny said in a mixture of awe and surprise. The smoke screen faded away completely, to see an old robot from their past...super sized.

"Hey, I remember you!" Hyper Knuckles exclaimed. Jayln and Kai, as well as Solar Sonic looked confused.

"Robo..." Hyper Hammer Amy said in awe. Sure enough, a Robo the size of the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters (A little taller then a skyscraper,) was standing in the street a few hundred feet away. His cold, rub eyes the size of A doorway were staring at them coldly.

"Mechanical Monster! ATTACK!" Knuckles2 commanded, before jumping on top of a skyscraper for safety. Vinny2 and Rouge2 joined him, Rouge2 standing on the top, Vinny2 leaning back casually. Robo/Mechanical Monster stepped towards them, causing a huge tremor to rock the entire block.

"How can we fight something that big!" Turbo Tails exclaimed.

"The same way we did last time." Cream said, stepping up.

"Which was...how?" Kai asked. Hyper Knuckles cracked his namesake eagerly, and Turbo Tails started spinning his.

"Just beat the heck out of him!" Gahlik exclaimed, darting forward. Solar Sonic grinned, before dashing off behind Gahlik. Solar Shadow and Hyper Vinny then bolted off as well, shortly followed by Turbo Tails, Hyper Knuckles, Kai, and Jayln. Amy, Cream, Rouge, and Blaze were left behind.

"_Foolish mortals...die!_" Robo/Mechanical Monster exclaimed in a cold, hard, metallic voice.

Sorry for the EXTREME shortness, but judging by the time, I'm getting a little tired and all. Gahlik, Sil, BHE, please tell me how you want your OC's to fight, alright? Thanks, yeah...wow, 2:21 am, later then I thought...Happy Turkey Day...later!

Pyro Hedgehog4ever


	26. Destiny of Darkness

Shadow's Life

Chapter 26

Destiny of Darkness

Yes, I made a title for my chapter, it's new territory...yeah, no one cares now do they? Nope, not at all. Okay, I own Vinny and Blaze, Sil owns Jayln and Blaze/Kyle, uhyeahitsteamdark owns Blaze/Kyle, and Shadow the Hedgehog the Ultimate Lifeform owns Gahlik. Due to BHE's wish, I am now the owner of Kai. Although I may not update as frequently as Streak the Chameleon, at least I still update...

_Robo, eh? This should be a piece of cake...almost as easy as using the Eclipse Cannon...just press a few buttons, enter the password, and then I can feel the familiar feeling of death and despair within seconds! Wait...but why call Robo 'Mechanical Monster'? This may be tougher then I thought...tougher then the others can handle...but not me! I'm the Ultimate Lifeform, and I can handle anything! Bring it on, you creep!_

_Shadow's thoughts..._

"He's tall..." Vinny said, oblivious as usual.

"You're almost as bad as Knuckles on a _good_ day..." Shadow mumbled. A large claw, as sharp as a double-bladed sword swiped at them. Shadow leaped over it, Turbo Tails flew over it, and Gahlik took this chance to strike.

"Go, Ghost!" Gahlik exclaimed as his chao then started licking the robot. Mechanical Monster looked at the small chao in slight confusion, and Gahlik struck. Gahlik bolted to Mechanical Monster's feet, and then jumped in the air, and split his legs and spun, slicing both of Mechanical Monster's legs. A few wires were severed, and Ghost returned to Gahlik's shoulder, as Gahlik leaped backwards towards the others. Turbo Tails picked up Hyper Knuckles, flew into the air, and threw Hyper Knuckles at Mechanical Monster.** (These names are way too long...)** However, Mechanical Monster's blood-stained claw reached them first. The claw tore through Turbo Tails' skin, crimson liquid pouring through the slash marks. Turbo Tails fell to the ground, where his fur turned back to its orange color, and his cape tore away and faded away in the night sky. Hyper Knuckles was caught in the chest, which flung him back into a building. He made a small impact in the skyscraper near the top, and lost his Hyper form. Rouge and Cream faded back, seeing as they were no real help whatsoever, mainly due to their inability to control their Super forms.

"Tails! Knuckles!" Hyper Vinny exclaimed, before dashing off along the ground. A laser shot from a large cannon that sprouted from Mechanical Monster's knee, and it caught Hyper Vinny below the chin. He flew backwards into the ground, bleeding. Hyper Vinny struggled to get up.

"How many attacks does this guy have?" Hyper Vinny asked. Suddenly, a golden laser shot from Mechanical Monster's eyes, engulfing them all. Jayln took out her fake Chaos Emerald, and shot a beam of power at Mechanical Monster. It hit, but with no satisfaction. Solar Shadow felt his eyes get more and more tired, and he had to keep himself awake by thinking of the fight.

"He's...he's...draining our energy!" Kai exclaimed. Sure enough, Solar Shadow, Solar Sonic, Hyper Vinny, and Amy's hammer fell to the ground in their normal forms. Shadow struggled against unconsciousness, and he saw a faint emerald light engulf them before all went black, with a satisfying roar from Mechanical Monster fading away into the distance...

In a giant world of darkness, Shadow was walking to nowhere, determined to find something. A soft, melody-like voice seemed to whisper at him from all sides. The voice seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't quite recognize it.

_'Shadow...Shadow...we need to hurry! They're coming!'_ the voice exclaimed. Shadow stopped dead in his tracks.

"They're coming? Who's they?" Shadow asked. The whispering seemed to get farther and farther away, and even as Shadow tried to keep up, he just couldn't keep up. With a start, a quick image flashed before Shadow's eyes.

"MARIA!" Shadow exclaimed, as a gunshot pierced the silence.

Shadow woke with a start, his eyelids feeling heavy. After a few minutes of heavy concentration, Shadow managed to open his eyes and look around. He saw large, healthy looking trees growing, as well as a few trees that were slightly scorched, and then a huge scorched area nearby, with dead plant life surrounding it. Shadow got to his feet, and scowled. How could he, Shadow, be beaten by a mere robot? It must've been his so-called 'allies'...he could've taken it down himself...

"Ouch...that hurt..." Blaze said, struggling to get to his feet. Blaze was nursing his injured arm, which had a large scorch mark.

"Shadow, did you use Chaos Control?" Amy asked from behind Shadow. Shadow looked over his shoulder at her, and frowned. Shadow shook his head, before facing away from her. There was a groan as Vinny got up, rubbing his chin.

"Man, did someone get the license on that laser...hm? How'd we get back to Angel Island?" Vinny asked, his voice slightly chocked.

"Someone _obviously_ had to use Chaos Control." Shadow said, smirking as he turned to face Vinny.

"C'mon, at least we're all safe!" Amy said, in a vain attempt to cheer everyone up. Everyone looked at her with cold eyes.

"Yeah, we're safe, but people down there are dying there by the plenty because we're not down there!" Vinny exclaimed!

"Hang on...if Shadow nor Vinny used Chaos Control...then...that just leaves one person..." Blaze said, slowly standing to his full height.

"Took you long enough." Shadow said, his voice full of coldness and hatred. Amy's eyes flaired with anger.

"Give him a break, he's only a kid!" Amy exclaimed, gesturing towards Blaze, who stood up.

"I'm not a kid, I'm almost a teenager!" Blaze exclaimed in anger. Vinny looked down at Blaze over his shoulder.

"Yeah, sure, that's why your room is all pink with a small teddy bear on your bed, _Kyle._" Vinny said, stretching the word Kyle. Without warning, Blaze turned around, and socked Vinny in the stomach, and quickly scissor kicked Vinny in the chin, sending him flying through the air.

"Yeah, what the hell else do you think I'd have in there! Last time I checked, that's all I had left of my parents! Oh, wait, I forgot, you don't care about my origin, you just care that I can fight!" Blaze exclaimed, a slight flame surrounding his body. Shadow grunted, and turned to face Blaze.

"You do realize that your parents are floating around in space?" Shadow asked. Blaze glared at him. Tension built for a second, before Blaze rushed forward.

"Liar!" Blaze exclaimed, before landing an uppercut on Shadow's chin. Shadow grunted, as he looked down at Blaze.

"You did not just want to do that..." Shadow said, anger building up. Blaze leaped back, teeth clenched.

"Well too late, because...I...just...DID!" Blaze roared, as fire shot from his body in every direction. Shadow furrowed his brow as he extended his hand forward.

"Chaos Shield!" Shadow exclaimed, as a familiar feeling of power shot through his arm, and created a small black slightly transparent shield in front of him. The fire struck the shield, and deflected off towards the sky. Not everyone else was lucky. In his sleep, Knuckles instinctively seemed to roll over the edge of Angel Island, and dig his spikes into the side. Everyone else, however, wasn't so lucky. Tails tried to fly away, but instead, his tails caught fire in midair, sending him plummeting towards the ground. Vinny's precious cloak burst into flames, and Vinny dashed towards the lake that was several yards away. Gahlik's chao, Ghost, had temporarily vanished, the flame passing right through him. Sonic used Chaos Control, and managed to warp everyone away just before the flame would have struck them. Sonic managed to warp everyone to the Master Emerald alter just in time to see something tragic happen. The Master Emerald was shaking slightly, its green aura steadily increasing. Waves of energy started circling the Master Emerald, faster and faster. Sonic looked up, and his eyes widened.

"Oh...crap." Sonic said, as the Master Emerald shattered. And there, standing amongst the pieces of the Master Emerald, was a short, mass of a blue liquid with solid, penetrating jade eyes, and a small brain floating in its head. Chaos 0 had returned to Earth for a second time.

Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter! (Despite the fact I haven't updated in half a year) I'll try and get to work on the next chapter immediately, and try and get it done before Thanksgiving. Later!

Pyro


	27. Chaos' Return

Shadow's Life

Chapter 27

Chaos's Return

The disclaimer is exactly the same as before, except for another character I'm creating. Trust me, you'll be able to figure out who it is.

Chaos 0 rose steadily from the pieces of the Master Emerald. Sonic and the others stared at Chaos, but it seemed that only Sonic and Amy recognized the God of Destruction. Sonic glared at the blue beast.

"Chaos!" Sonic exclaimed, before rushing forward. Sonic shot up the steps, and as soon as he reached the top, he was struck in the face by a strong fist. He felt an extreme pain in his nose as he was sent backwards in the air. Sonic felt the air shoot past him an extreme rate. The last thing Sonic saw was a flash of aqua blue before his head collided into something hard, and passed out.

"Ugh..." Sonic groaned, as he sat up. The events that just happened played themselves over and over again in his head. "I can't believe it...I lost...to Chaos 0?" Sonic asked himself. A flash of light quickly shot through the room, causing Sonic to look up. The light had come from a nearby window, where Sonic could see that the sun was rising. The house was made entirely out of wood, with some of the logs being a brighter color then the others. There was a bookcase to the right of the bed, but it was completely empty. However, there was a single, dust-covered book that laid on the very top of the bookshelf. Sonic turned on his side, but instantly recoiled with a hiss as his head started throbbing. Sonic clutched his head, and waited for the pain to subside before moving. He slowly pulled the covers off of him, and turned to the face the side of the bed. A cool hand placed itself on his forehead, and he looked up into the face of a pink hedgehog.

"What are you doing, silly?" she asked, her voice filled with its usual bounce. Sonic groaned.

"I'm getting out of this bed." Sonic said, trying to get to his feet. Amy stopped him, before gently laying him back down.

"No, you need to stay still and rest!" Amy said, putting the covers back over him. Sonic groaned, but gave in to Amy, for her sake. Amy smiled at him, before turning around and bouncing out of the room merrily.

_'Man...I can't believe I have to just sit around...'_ Sonic thought to himself. A shadow crept into the room, and Sonic looked up instinctively.

"Hey Espio!" Sonic blurted. The chameleon gave him a cold glare, and Sonic noticed his features. Although similar to Espio, he had a dark hooded sweatshirt on and a slick pair of jeans. Even though he had his hands hidden in his pockets, Sonic could see a bracelet of sorts dangling from his wrist. However, the piercing glare was just like Espio's.

"I'm not Espio. I'm his brother, Streak." Streak said in a cold voice. Sonic raised his hands defensively, and felt a twang of pain in his shoulder blade. Streak looked at him, as if studying him.

"Judging by your reaction yesterday, you've seen Chaos before." Streak said calmly. Sonic nodded.

"It's safe to assume you've fought him then." Streak continued. Sonic nodded again, this time more slowly.

"Good. There's only 3 Emeralds left that he hasn't found: Shadow's Vinny's...and the red one." Streak said. Sonic nodded, then jumped.

"Chaos...has 4 of the Emeralds?" Sonic exclaimed. Streak nodded.

"I've been helping out the others for a while, and they're expecting me back soon. When you're ready, come join us." Streak said, turning.

"How will I know when-" Sonic started. Streak stopped him.

"Trust me, you'll know." Streak said, before disappearing in a flash of light. Sonic just stared for a second, before grouchily lying back down.

With a flash of light, Streak reappeared in Station Square. An impatient Shadow and a somewhat bored-looking Espio stood waiting. Streak noticed that Shadow had a long white mark on one of his quills.

"Don't ask." Shadow said quietly. Streak shrugged.

"Where's the red emerald?" Streak asked. Shadow shrugged. There was a silent emerald flash, and Vinny appeared in front of them.

"Sorry I'm late...but it's just as we feared. The red Emerald's in the worst place possible. Tails confirmed it." He said, quickly.

"You don't mean..." Streak started. Vinny grimly nodded.

**Cliffhanged! Sorry for the late update...I thought I'd be kidding when I said I'd update before Thanksgiving...don't forget to leave a review!**


	28. Emerald Hunt

Shadow's Life

Chapter 28

Emerald Hunt

All characters are owned by the same people as last chapter.

'_Great, this is just what we needed. A God of Destruction searching for the Chaos Emeralds so it can destroy the world. To make things even worse, we've already lost four of the Emeralds to Chaos, and now we're on borderline five. If Shadow loses his, we're done for. And if Chaos gets the seventh one...well, I just won't think about that. Stupid Chaos."_

_Streak's thoughts..._

"You have got to be kidding me." Streak commented. Espio merely nodded in agreement.

"Whatever. I can get it." Shadow said dangerously, eyes flicking from person to person, as if daring someone to challenge him.

"Right. When you freeze to death, come let us know." Vinny replied sarcastically.

"Words won't get anything done, but actions will. We've wasted enough time as is already. No doubt Chaos is already headed for the Emerald. Either we leave now, or the Emerald is gone." Espio quietly commented.

"He's got a point." Streak added.

"Fine. Just don't get in my way." Shadow said calmly, before drawing the Chaos Emerald. His tossed it into the air with a flick of his wrist, and just as the Emerald touched his hand, the four of them disappeared into a flash of jade light.

Sonic threw a quick glance at the door, and slid further under the covers with a sigh of relief. After Streak disappeared, Amy had freaked out, more about the fact that Perfect Chaos could show up at any second, trying to destroy the world...again. Sonic tossed out a laugh, knowing that wherever the last Chaos Emerald was, it was probably about to be found. And by Shadow, no less. Sonic immediately sat up, his competitive streak kicking in. His first thought was to Chaos Control out of the room and try to follow Streak, but he didn't have a Chaos Emerald on him. Of course, if he did, Chaos probably would have taken it. That left him two options: either try to run and find Shadow and Streak, or get Tails to make another fake emerald. Of course, he had no clue where Tails was either, but Sonic knew that his friend would either be somewhere on Angel Island or in his lab, both of which would be pretty easy to get to. He jumped up and out of the bed, feet ablazing, and shot out the door just as Amy went to go inside.

"Later, Ames!" he called out behind him as he disappeared into the distance.

_'It's a good thing I can run so fast' _Sonic thought, _'because I have never seen Amy look so mad before...'_

Tails was sitting at a desk in his laboratory, working on a possible way to help stop Chaos before he got the last Emerald, when there was a knock at the door. Tails looked up from his work, which was currently a large pile of papers with extremely complicated designs and functions on them, and walked over to the door. He cracked it open, but threw it open the rest of the way when he saw it was none other then Sonic.

"Hey Tails, what's up?" Sonic asked.

"Just working on a few bugs with my newest invention. Wanna come in?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded and raced in, plopping down on the nearby couch.

"Hey, do you think you can make me another one of the fake Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic asked. Tails looked over, and thought for a second.

" I'm not sure, if I still had the original, I could just copy it, but it went missing last night, and I'm not sure where it is." Tails replied, a bit hesitant. Sonic looked at Tails, puzzled.

"But what would someone want with a fake..." Sonic started, but a memory washed over him...

_Tails, Amy and Sonic were all standing together in a small, dimly lit hallway aboard the ARK. Tails, still seated in his mobilized Cyclone Walker, was telling Sonic about the fake Emerald he had created. 'It has the same wavelengths and properties. Not even a machine can tell the difference.' Tails said, without even an ounce of proudness in his voice..._

"Chaos has the fake!" Sonic exclaimed, jumping up off the sofa. Tails swiveled on his chair, turning from his papers to Sonic.

"What? But why would Chaos have the fake?" Tails asked, confused.

:It has the same wavelength and properties, to the point where, if a machine couldn't tell the difference, then neither could Chaos!" Sonic exclaimed triumphantly.

"But...if Chaos has the fake...then...couldn't he now get...8 Chaos Emeralds, instead of 7? Wouldn't he...be stronger than Perfect Chaos?"

Cliffhangered...!...? I dunno. It's been a while since my last update...(almost a year) but Streak the Chameleon said I should go back and update my story...so I did. I had this in mind for quite a while, but could never really fit it in. So, a few more badly written chapters later, here I am. Sonic and Tails found out about the potential of Chaos 8, Shadow, Vinny and Streak are off to fight for the 5th (or 6th) Chaos Emerald, and everyone else...I dunno, disappeared or something. Later!

Pyro Hedgehog


End file.
